Reddit mentions of The Elements of Moral Philosophy

It depends on what you want to get out of it. If you want a clear, intro-level overview of the subject, check out Shafer-Landau's Fundamental's of Ethics. It's a fantastic place to start, and it is the book I recommend if you really want to understand the subject and plan to read outside the context of a class.

If you want primary texts, I suggest that you get the book's companion, The Ethical Life.

If you want a textbook that is a little shorter and more engaging, check out Rachels' The Elements of Moral Philosophy.

If you want an introduction that's informative and fun to read but less informative than the Rachels or the Shafer-Landau, check out Sandel's Justice. You can also watch his Justice lectures online. This book, as opposed to the other two, is written for a popular audience.

I haven't read Subahibi, so I'm just going to take your question as "how do I get into philosophy."

Philosophy is one of the most diverse fields that we currently have. Philosophy is more than just pondering the meaning of life, it also is about uncovering the mindsets on discoveries and how people came about the knowledge we have today. You should start more simple over diving into people's work like Nietzsche so you can get the full picture on why they say what they say.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge, metaphysics is the study of existence (not to be confused with existentialism, which is even more meta and theoretical), Aesthetics is the study of art, Ethics is the study of morality, and there are philosophies of politics, mind, body, religion, and all sorts.

I would shy away from direct writings from philosophers, as contemporary books are the literal collection of all of their knowledge presented in an easier to digest way.

Even though some might consider this taking a step backwards, I'd recommend you read some introductory textbook style material since doing so will give you an opportunity to be exposed to expert analysis of what you've read already, current developments within the field, and enough further reading recommendations to keep you busy for awhile.

To this end -- and in order of less to more advanced material -- I personally recommend "The Elements of Moral Philosophy" by James Rachels, "Moral Theory: an Introduction" by Mark Timmons, "The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory, " edited by David Copp, and searching by topic within the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

http://smile.amazon.com/Elements-Moral-Philosophy-Religion/dp/0078119065

> Again, I'm not advocating any particular notion of moral relativism here

Well, your own. Which, I accept, btw—that's your preferred definition for all intents an purposes, and it's how I'd treat it were we to ever engage in a good faith dialogue about it so that we wouldn't get confused or talk past each other.

> These things are not simply arbitrary

In many approaches, they're not arbitrary, but there are some really good arguments in this field that treat them, and their buy-in and obligation, as being arbitrary.

> and it is erroneous to say that they're arguing that morality is arbitrary.

Let's disagree about this as it appears you're new to some of this thinking.

> I'm just challenging the idea that any accepted school or thinker advocates a theory of morality in which morality is arbitrary.

There's an entire three centuries waiting for you to catch up and inundate your thinking with all of the contemporary work on ethics.

So, continue working with that article and exploring the ideas and philosophers there, but then there's another great article that's helpful here:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/metaethics/

A great book to introduce you to some of these arguments and their competitors is, The Elements of Moral Philosophy.

Ethics is intrinsically complex, and there's a spectrum of thinking (schools of thought, as you like to call them) with a web of fascinating arguments.

Ethics is contentious for a reason, and there are a lot of ways to approach it, your preference notwithstanding.