Sure. Nietzsche was one of the first to approach this subject. In "The Gay Science" he built out the ethical self-actualization as a rejection of nihilism. Late

Sure. Nietzsche was one of the first to approach this subject. In "The Gay Science" he built out the ethical self-actualization as a rejection of nihilism. Later existentialists (Camus, Sarte) did the same thing but attempted to connect it on a more human basis with freedom. Some even approached the same question with a theological perspective (Kierkegaard). The phenomenologists wanted us to throw everything we thought we knew about existence and morality out the window, so I'm not even going to touch on Hiedegger et al (if you're interested you can slave your way through Zein und Seit yourself). The Neo-Kantians endeavor to correct the mistakes Kant made following the CI and deal more with a "personal" CI, if you will (quite complicated, can't explain in a few sentences). Overall, I think that's a pretty good reading list to start with. You should probably read this[1] as an introduction, as well as [2]. Remember though: philosophy almost never comes up with correct answers, it only shows which answers are almost definitely wrong. [1] http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/metaethics/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/metaethics/ [2] http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-relativism/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-relativism/