This important new book argues that Henry James' fiction reveals a sophisticated theory of moral understanding and moral motivation. The claim is that James is engaged in a distinctive kind of original thinking and reflecting on modern moral life in his novels and short stories. The book offers important new interpretations of many novels as well as several short stories. It is written by one of the pre-eminent interpreters of the modern European philosophical tradition and will interest philosophers as well as literary critics. Moreover, the style is completely non-technical, with no reliance on contemporary literary or philosophical theory, and will therefore be accessible to students and general readers.