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The buck-passing account of goodness and value analyses goodness and value in terms of reasons for pro-attitudes. In this thesis I defend the buck-passing account of goodness and value. The buck-passing account is ordinarily thought of as an account of good simpliciter and final value. In chapter 1 I defend the notion of good simpliciter and final value against scepticism about good simpliciter in particular. In chapter 2 I introduce and elucidate what seems to me to be the strongest understanding of the buck-passing account of good simpliciter and final value. In chapters 3 and 4 I discuss the most famous objection to the buck-passing account, the Wrong Kind of Reason problem, and offer two different responses to this problem. In chapter 5 I discuss and respond to several other objections to the buck-passing account of good simpliciter. Some philosophers hold that (1) if a buck-passing account of good simpliciter holds, then a buck-passing account of all other types of goodness must hold. (2) But buck-passing accounts of other types of goodness are implausible. So, the buck-passing account is implausible. In chapter 6 I argue for (1) but contest (2) by defending new buck-passing accounts of other types of goodness. In chapter 7 I argue that if the buck-passing account of good simpliciter and final value holds, it does not follow that a buck-passing account of thick evaluative concepts holds. But, nevertheless, a buck-passing account of thick concepts is not implausible. In chapters 8 and 9 I explore the arguments for the buck-passing account. I argue that there are problems with all other plausible accounts of the relationship between reasons for pro-attitudes and value, that the buck-passing account has explanatory advantages over these other accounts, and helps to demystify goodness and value in a way that they do not.

This thesis examines four of William Shakespeare's plays that 'property' bodies and dehumanize characters, and uncovers how these two processes interact. Close readings of the plays and analyses of bodily props are contextualized in criticism on early modern material culture and theories about the human body, as well as research on properties, players, and performance on the Renaissance stage. Chapter 1, 'Titus Andronicus: The Body as Food', considers Chiron and Demetrius's meat-pie. I discuss how warfare and vengeance cause the Romans and Goths to treat each other as food to be consumed. I explore the ways that, in this play, revenge is a hunger that is fed by Alarbus's execution and Lavinia's rape and mutilation, before Tamora cannibalizes her sons. Chapter 2, 'The Merchant of Venice: The Body as Currency', considers Antonio's 'pound of flesh'. I explore how a risky and ruthless mercantile economy causes characters to be viewed as investments, bets, and potential currency. I analyze Portia's position as the prize of the hazard, Jessica's absconding from her father's house with his wealth, and the trial scene during which Antonio's flesh might be forfeit to repay his debt. Chapter 3, 'Othello: The Body as Textile', considers Desdemona's handkerchief. I explore how Othello's misogyny causes him to see his wife's chastity and fidelity as indicated by a handkerchief rather than her word. I expand the reading of textiles to other fabrics that frame characters' bodies, including costuming and bedclothes. Chapter 4, 'The Winter's Tale: The Body as Artwork', considers Hermione's 'statue'. I explore how anxieties surrounding female sexuality and reproductive power compel men to capture them in things, including the treasures that surround the infant Perdita. I analyze Leontes's attraction to the statue that seems to freeze time, and Hermione's use of this art object to come back to life.

This thesis explores Henry Fielding’s fascination with marriage, and the importance of the marriage plot in his plays and early novels. Its main argument is twofold: it contends that Fielding presents marriage as symptomatic of moral and social evils on the one hand, and as a powerful source of moral improvement on the other. It also argues that the author imported and adapted the theatrical marriage plot—a key diegetic structure of stage comedies of the early eighteenth century—into his prose fictions. Following the hypothesis that this was his favourite narrative vehicle, as it proffered harmony between form and content, the thesis illustrates the ways in which Fielding transposed some of the well-established dramatic conventions of the marriage plot into the novel, a genre that was gaining in cultural status at the time. The Introduction provides background information for the study of marriage in Fielding’s work, offering a brief historical contextualization of marital laws and practices before the Marriage Act of 1753. Section One presents close readings of ten representative plays, investigating the writer’s first discovery of the theatrical marriage plot, and the ways in which he appropriated and experimented with it. The four chapters that compose the second part of the thesis trace the interrelated development of the marriage plot and theatrical motifs in Fielding’s early novels, namely Shamela (1741), Joseph Andrews (1742), Jonathan Wild (1743), and The Female Husband (1746). By drawing attention to the continuities between Fielding’s plays and novels, my research challenges the conventional Richardson-Fielding dichotomy, proposing alternative readings that demonstrate that Fielding’s novels are more indebted to their author’s theatrical past than to the factual, but frequently overstated, rivalry with Samuel Richardson. A key argument, which this thesis offers as an innovative contribution, is that the novel form as moulded by Fielding at mid-century has an explicitly theatrical bearing, which has hitherto not been studied.