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ABSOLUTISM
ACT-UTILITARIANISM
The Basic View: Utilitarianism is a
consequentialist theory
Analyzing the Utilitarian Principle
Jeremy Bentham=s Analysis of Pleasure
John Stuart Mill=s Analysis of Pleasure
The Main Strength of Utilitarian Theory:
happiness, a fundamental human value
Problems with Act-utilitarianism
Is Act-utilitarianism Impractical: Can we
calculate happiness?
Does Act-utilitarianism Succumb to Obvious
Counterexamples?
Rule-utilitarianism
Is the Pursuit of Happiness an Unhappy Fate?
AGREEMENT IN MORAL THEORY: DAVID GAUTHIER
Morality and the Prisoner=s Dilemma
Problem of the free-rider
Moral values and nonmoral constraints
Deriving what ought to be from what is
Preferences and moral values
ARISTOTLE ON VIRTUE
Aristotle
Aristotle=s
Golden Mean
Virtue: functioning well
BASIC VALUES: DEVELOPING A MORAL THEORY
Using basic values
Rationality: a nonmoral basic value
Moral basic values
Advantages to using a basic value
CARE
Carol Gilligan's Different Voice
Nell Noddings's Care
CASE METHOD AND CASUISTRY
Using paradigm cases
Casuistry
Casuistry and particularism
Casuistry and pluralism
CASUISTRY
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
COHERENCE IN ETHICS
Coherence in moral theory
Philosophers=
role
Theory pluralism
Features of a coherence theory
CONSERVATISM
Nature of conservatism
Conservatism and traditional values.
Conservatism and governmental enforcement of
values
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
The nature of cultural relativism
Support for cultural relativism
The extent of cultural differences
Is cultural relativism inconsistent?
Evaluating cultural relativism
The objectivity of moral standards
DECISION PROCEDURE IN ETHICS
Particularism and moral judgments
Rawls=
competent judge
The consistency requirement
Generalizing good judgments: developing moral
principles
Evaluating Rawls= approach
DEONTOLOGY
The meaning of >deontology=.
Using classifications to understand and judge
theories
DETERMINISM
DIVERSITY AND MULTICULTURALISM
The need for special consideration
Guiding values
The value of group heritage
Multiculturalism: a limited pluralism
DOMAIN OF MORAL THEORY
Nature of the moral domain
Actions performed by individuals
Group actions
Personality and character traits
Institutions and Practices
Moral Rules and Principles
Ideals
EQUALITY
EVOLUTIONARY RELATIVISM
The nature of evolutionary relativism
The status of standards
Evaluating evolutionary relativism
FEMINIST ETHICS
The need for feminist ethics
Gender bias
Feminist issues
FREEDOM
Positive and negative liberty
F. A. Hayek=s
sense of freedom
Hayek=s
envelope of security
John Dewey=s
liberal sense of freedom
HARM AND WELFARE
Welfare
Interests
Utilitarianism and
interests
Harm
Joel Feinberg’s
account of harm
Preventing harm
Harm and social action
What counts as harm?
IDEALS: MORAL
IDEALS: PROCEDURAL
An ideal moral observer
Social contract theory
IDEALS: SUBSTANTIVE
IDEAL STATE
Political ideals
Plato's Republic
Myth of Gyges= Ring
Myth of the Cave
The Republic: a
meritocracy
Democracy
Karl Marx's Communism
Marx=s theory of revolution
Labor theory of value
Marx=s position on morality and the ideal state
INTUITIONISM
Meaning of intuitionism
Evaluating intuitionism
JUSTICE
Meaning of >justice=
Contribution
Effort
Need
Moral worth
Using multiple standards
Judging basic social arrangements
Plato=s
republic
John Rawls=
social contract theory
Some other views: entitlements, equality,
proper spheres, group equality
Evaluating theories of justice
KANTIAN DEONTOLOGY
Background
Being Morally Praiseworthy
Categorical versus Hypothetical Imperatives
Moral Laws: The Categorical Imperative
Kant=s
Respect for Persons
Problems with Kantian Morality
How Should we
Universalize?
Kant=s Theory as Overly Narrow
Concluding Remark
LIBERALISM
The meaning of liberalism
Traditional liberalism
Contemporary liberalism
Regulating social life
METAETHICS
Metaethics versus substantive ethics
Observations and moral inquiry
Morality and language
Distinction between substantive ethics and
metaethics
Decline of metaethics
X is good
Naturalism
G.E. Moore=s
examination of naturalism: the open question test
Moral goodness: a non-natural quality
Emotivism
Prescriptivism: R.M. Hare
MORAL LUCK
MORAL PRINCIPLES
The nature of moral principles
Applying moral principles
The major principled theories: utilitarianism
and Kantian ethics
>MORAL SAINTS AND MORAL EXEMPLARS
An ideal person
Is it ideal to be a moral saint?
Moral exemplar and moral luck
NATURAL LAW THEORY
NORMS AND THE THEORY OF GAMES
Norms
Game theory
NORMS: THEIR MORAL STATUS
Norms
Conventions
Moral force of norms
Promising as a practice
Types of norms
OBJECTIVITY, SUBJECTIVITY, AND MORAL VIEWS
Pluralism and cultural relativism
Moral versus nonmoral standards
Standards as purely objective
The meaning of >objectivity=
Morality and God=s plan
Plato and objectivity
Standards as purely subjective
Moral subjectivism
Moral nihilism
PARTICULARISM
PARTICULARISM AND SITUATION ETHICS
PARTICULARISM: JONATHAN DANCY
Moral judgments without rules or principles
Dancy=s
argument
Extreme particularism and salient features
Moral intuitionism
Moral holism
PLURALISM
Loosening cultural ties
Pluralism and its problems
PRAGMATIC ETHICS
PRIMA FACIE DUTIES
Moral rules may conflict
W. D. Ross and prima facie duties
Resolving conflicting rules and the mutuality
principle
PRISONERS=
DILEMMA
Pervasiveness of norms
Game theory and the Prisoners= Dilemma
Rationality and the Prisoners= Dilemma
Norms, the Prisoners= Dilemma, and the free-rider
RANGE OF MORAL THEORY
Nature of the moral range
Obligation and prohibition
Permission
Recommendation
Moral superiority
Morally ideal
REALISM IN MORAL THEORY
Meaning of >moral
realism=
Moral observations
Other forms of moral realism
Stephen Boyd's test of moral realism
Moral realism and stable standards
RELATIVISM
Relativism and differing standards
Cultural relativism
Extreme ethical relativism
Tolerance and moral relativism
Evaluating relativism
RIGHTS
ROYCE'S PHILOSOPHY OF LOYALTY
Values and Personal Identity
Philosophy of Loyalty
Loyalty to loyalty
Royce and W.E.B. DuBois
RULES
Status of moral rules
Rules and relativism
Moral rules and moral principles
Negative moral rules as the main aspect of
morality
RULES: BERNARD GERT
Nature of moral rules
Bernard Gert=s
System
Kurt Baier=s
moral point of view
Test of a moral rule
Gert=s
moral rules
Moral responsibility, moral rules, and the law
Defending moral rules
RULES: THEIR ORIGIN
Nature of moral rules
From God=s
authority
Moral rules and cultural relativism
Bernard Gert=s
view
From intuition
Moral rules: derived from principles?
RULE-UTILITARIANISM
Utilitarianism
Act-utilitarianism
Rule-utilitarianism
Richard Brandt and rule-utilitarianism
Rule-utilitarianism: a way to avoid the
problems of act utilitarianism
R. M. Hare=s
two-tiered system
SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY
Social contract theory and conventionalism
Social contract tradition
State of nature
Agreement in the state of nature
John Rawls=s
contemporary social contract theory
Main features of a social contract theory: an
evaluation
SOCIAL EQUALITY
Meaning of 'social equality'
Three conceptions of equality
Ronald Dworkin's Equality of Resources
Michael Walzer's Complex Equality
R. H. Tawney's Group Equality
TELEOLOGY
Purpose of morality
Moral and non-moral values
Main ingredients of a teleological view
Using classifications to understand and
evaluate theories
TWO CONCEPTS OF RULES: JOHN RAWLS
Two concepts of rules
Summary rules
Practice rules
Changing rules
Morality and practice rules
UTILITARIANISM
A consequentialist theory
Statement of the utilitarian principle
VIRTUE: ALASDAIR MACINTYRE=S POSITION
Virtue and practices
Evaluating MacIntyre=s position
VIRTUE ETHICS
Virtue ethics: a reaction to rigid theories
Elizabeth Anscombe's support for virtue ethics
Virtue theory and inadequacy of moral rules
Moral dispositions: basic to virtue theory
Disposition versus action
Morality and the need for motivation
Evaluating virtue ethics
Identifying the person of virtue
` by actions
by character traits
by social practices