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Other Moral Theories : Subjectivism, Relativism, Emotivism, Intuitionism, Etc
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS 30 Other Moral Theories: Subjectivism, Relativism, Emotivism, Intuitionism, etc. 1 Jan Franciszek Jacko Metaethics includes moral theories that contain assumptions which answer some metaphysical and epistemological questions about moral goods and values. The metaphysical questions (such as What are, and how do moral goods and values exist?) are about the nature and existence of moral goods and values. Epistemological questions (such as Can we know moral goods and values? If so, what are the sources of knowledge about them?) regard sources of knowledge about moral goods, values and criteria of moral evaluations.2 Assumptions of ethical subjectivism, relativism, decisionism, emotivism and intuitionism are exemplary answers to these questions. We call their answers “normative assumptions.” There are at least three good reasons to ask and answer such questions. First, without answering them, moral judgments remain ambiguous. For example, if I say, “Action X is wrong,” the judgement has several meanings. To specify its sense, I should clarify my normative assumptions. For example, I can assume metaphysical subjectivism (anti-realism) or realism in metaethics. According to the former assumption, my above judgment about X is not about reality; it is about my or someone’s opinion. In this case, the exact meaning of this judgement is: someone evaluates X as morally wrong. If I assume the counter-assumption of metaphysical realism (anti-subjectivism), I mean that it is true that X has the property of moral wrongness. Second, these assumptions are conductive to peculiar practices. To specify the practice, which follows from moral judgments, one has to determine some normative assumptions. -
Moral Implications of Darwinian Evolution for Human Reference
Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University Dissertations Graduate Research 2006 Moral Implications of Darwinian Evolution for Human Reference Based in Christian Ethics: a Critical Analysis and Response to the "Moral Individualism" of James Rachels Stephen Bauer Andrews University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dissertations Part of the Christianity Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, Evolution Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Bauer, Stephen, "Moral Implications of Darwinian Evolution for Human Reference Based in Christian Ethics: a Critical Analysis and Response to the "Moral Individualism" of James Rachels" (2006). Dissertations. 16. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dissertations/16 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Research at Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your interest in the Andrews University Digital Library of Dissertations and Theses. Please honor the copyright of this document by not duplicating or distributing additional copies in any form without the author’s express written permission. Thanks for your cooperation. Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary MORAL IMPLICATIONS OF DARWINIAN EVOLUTION FOR HUMAN PREFERENCE BASED IN CHRISTIAN ETHICS: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND RESPONSE TO THE “MORAL INDIVIDUALISM” OF JAMES RACHELS A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Stephen Bauer November 2006 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3248152 Copyright 2006 by Bauer, Stephen All rights reserved. -
An Introduction to Philosophy
An Introduction to Philosophy W. Russ Payne Bellevue College Copyright (cc by nc 4.0) 2015 W. Russ Payne Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document with attribution under the terms of Creative Commons: Attribution Noncommercial 4.0 International or any later version of this license. A copy of the license is found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1 Contents Introduction ………………………………………………. 3 Chapter 1: What Philosophy Is ………………………….. 5 Chapter 2: How to do Philosophy ………………….……. 11 Chapter 3: Ancient Philosophy ………………….………. 23 Chapter 4: Rationalism ………….………………….……. 38 Chapter 5: Empiricism …………………………………… 50 Chapter 6: Philosophy of Science ………………….…..… 58 Chapter 7: Philosophy of Mind …………………….……. 72 Chapter 8: Love and Happiness …………………….……. 79 Chapter 9: Meta Ethics …………………………………… 94 Chapter 10: Right Action ……………………...…………. 108 Chapter 11: Social Justice …………………………...…… 120 2 Introduction The goal of this text is to present philosophy to newcomers as a living discipline with historical roots. While a few early chapters are historically organized, my goal in the historical chapters is to trace a developmental progression of thought that introduces basic philosophical methods and frames issues that remain relevant today. Later chapters are topically organized. These include philosophy of science and philosophy of mind, areas where philosophy has shown dramatic recent progress. This text concludes with four chapters on ethics, broadly construed. I cover traditional theories of right action in the third of these. Students are first invited first to think about what is good for themselves and their relationships in a chapter of love and happiness. Next a few meta-ethical issues are considered; namely, whether they are moral truths and if so what makes them so. -
Ethical Realism/Moral Realism Ethical Propositions That Refer to Objective Features May Be True If They Are Free of Subjectivis
Metaethics: Cognitivism Metaethics: What is morality, or “right”? Normative (prescriptive) ethics: How should people act? Descriptive ethics: What do people think is right? Applied ethics: Putting moral ideas into practice Thin moral concepts Thick moral concepts more general: good, bad, right, and wrong more specic: courageous, inequitable, just, or dishonest Centralism- thin concepts are antecedent to the thick ones Non-centralism- thick concepts are a sucient starting point for understanding thin ones because thin and thick concepts are equal. Normativity is a non-excisable aspect of language and there is no way of analyzing thick moral concepts into a purely descriptive element attached to a thin moral evaluation, thus undermining any fundamental division between facts and norms. Cognitivism ethical propositions are truth-apt (can be true or false), unlike questions or commands Ethical subjectivism/moral anti-realism Ethical realism/moral realism True ethical propositions are a function of subjective features Ethical propositions that refer to objective features may be true if they are free of subjectivism Moral relativism Moral universalism/ Robust and Minimal Robust moral objectivism/ nobody is objectively right or wrong universal morality 1. Semantic thesis: moral predicates 3. Metaphysical thesis: the facts in regards to diagreements about are to refer to moral properties so and properties of #1 are robust-- moral questions a system of ethics, or a universal ethic, moral statements represent moral their metaphysical status is not applies universally to "all" facts, and express propositions that relevantly dierent from ordinary are true or false non-moral facts and properties Cultural relativism not all forms of moral universalism 2. -
T H E O B S E R V
o cr The Observer 1 8 4 2 -1 9 9 2 @----------- SE SOUlCENTt NNIAl T he O bserver Saint MarvS College NOTRE DAME - INDIANA VOL XXIV NO. 117 Wednesday, March 25, 1992 THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING NOTRE DAME AND SAINT MARY’S S. Korean governing party concedes defeat SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — told jubilant supporters. President Roh Tae-woo’s con With more than 90 percent of servative party acknowledged the votes counted for National Wednesday that it suffered a Assembly elections, the Demo surprise defeat in South Korea’s cratic Liberals led in 113 of the general elections and failed to 237 single-member districts, six retain majority control of seats short of a majority, KBS parliament. Television said. The election reflected strains To form a government, Rob’s in the government’s traditional party is likely to try to merge alliance with big business, with an opposition group or en which has been resisting efforts tice independent candidates to increase public control over into its fold, as it did after the one of the world’s fastest- last general election, in 1988. growing economies. The powerful founder of The results indicated lower Hyundai, who formed a party than expected support for the just one month ago and cam ruling party as it prepares for paigned to stop government the presidential election this fall meddling in business, won 24 to replace Roh, whose single seats. five-year term ends next “We watched the election re February. sults with shock and disap pointment, but we will humbly Candidates of the main oppo accept the people’s will,” said sition group led in 77 districts Kim Yoon-hwan, secretary gen and a month-old party founded eral of the ruling Democratic by maverick millionaire Chung Liberal Party. -
Ethics Content
Ethics Content I Introduction to Ethics Unit-1 Nature and Scope of Ethics Unit-2 Importance and Challenges of Ethics Unit-3 Ethics in the History of Indian Philosophy Unit-4 Ethics in the History of Western Philosophy II Ethical Foundations Unit-1 Human Values Unit-2 Human Virtues Unit-3 Human Rights Unit-4 Human Duties III Applied Ethics Unit-1 International Ethics Unit-2 Bioethics Unit-3 Environmental Ethics Unit-4 Media Ethics IV Current Ethical Debates Unit-1 Natural Moral Law Unit-2 Deontology and Moral Responsibility Unit-3 Discourse Ethics Unit-4 Social Institutions UNIT 1 NATURE AND SCOPE OF ETHICS Nature and Scope of Ethics Contents 1.0 Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Moral Intuitionism 1.3 Human Person in Search of Himself/Herself 1.4 Love and the Moral Precepts 1.5 The Dynamics of Morality 1.6 The Constant and the Variable in Morality 1.7 Let Us Sum Up 1.8 Key Words 1.9 Further Readings and References 1.0 OBJECTIVES This unit aims at introducing the students to the philosophical need for Ethics starting from a brief discussion of Moral law and how the human person in his or her process of growth intuits the ethical principles. Discussions pertaining to the dynamics of morality is undertaken to show how on the one hand new situations call for new responses from moral point of view and on the other hand certain fundamentals of ethics remain the same in so far as there is something of a common human nature adequately understood. -
XX Век II. METAETHICS of the 20Th CENTUR
Максимов Л.В. Сектор этики ИФ РАН (апрель 2016) Метаэтика. Избранная библиография. Часть II. – XX век II. METAETHICS OF THE 20th CENTURY (SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY) 1. Bruce A. Ackerman Social Justice in the Liberal State (New Haven: YAle University Press, 1980) 2. Robert Ackermann "Consistency and Ethics" in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 69, 1969. 3. E. M. Adams "A Critique of the Emotive Theory of Ethical Terms" in Journal of Philosophy 46, 1949. EMA complains that Ayer and Stevenson do not adequately analyse approbation, failing properly to distinguish it from mere liking. If we do analyse it we find it involves a cognitive element in the form of a judgement of rightness. So it is incoherent to analyse judgements of rightness in terms of approval. "Word-Magic and Logical Analysis in the Field of Ethics" in Journal of Philosophy 47, 1950. "The Nature of Ethical Inquiry" in Journal of Philosophy 48, 1951. "Cartesianism in Ethics" in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 16, 1956. "Mr Hare on the Role of Principles in Deciding" in Mind 65, 1956. "The Nature of 'Ought'" in Philosophical Studies 7, 1956. "'Ought' Again" in Philosophical Studies 8, 1957. "Hall's Analysis of "Ought"" in Journal of Philosophy 55, 1958. "The Theoretical and the Practical" in Review of Metaphysics 13, 1960. Ethical Naturalism and the Modern World-View (London: Oxford University Press, 1961). "Classical Moral Philosophy and Metaethics" in Ethics 74, 1964. "A Defense of Value Realism" in Southern Journal of Philosophy 4, 1966. "Gewirth on Reason and Morality" in Review of Metaphysics 33, 1980. "The Subjective Normative Structure of Agency" in Regis, Gewirth's Ethical Rationalism "Rationality and Morality" in Review of Metaphysics 46, 1993. -
Subjectivism in Ethics
CHAPTER 3 Subjectivism in Ethics Take any action allow'd to be vicious: Wilful murder, for instance. Examine it in all lights, and see if you can find that matter of fact, or real existence, which you call vice ...You can never find it, till you turn your reflexion into your own breast, and find a sentiment of disapprobation, which arises in you, toward this action. Here is a matter of fact; but 'tis the object of feeling, not reason. DAVID HUME, A TREATIS'E OF HUMAN NATURE (1740) 3.1. The Basic Idea of Ethical Subjectivism In 2001 there was a mayoral election in New York, and when it came time for the city's annual Gay Pride Day parade, every sin• gle Democratic and Republican candidate showed up to march. "There is not a single candidate who can be described as not good on our issues," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, a gay rights organization. He added that "In other parts of the country, the positions taken here would be extremely unpopular, if not deadly at the polls." The national Republican Party apparently agrees; at the urging of religious conservatives, it has made opposition to gay rights a part of its national stance. What do people around the country actually think? The Gallup Poll has been asking Americans "Do you feel that ho• mosexuality should be considered an acceptable alternative lifestyle or not?" since 1982, when 34% responded affirmatively. The number has been rising, however, and in 2000, a majority- 52%-said that they think homosexuality should be considered acceptable. -
'R Re$ A, O W E T ~ ~ A.S T C H a Nesmo
r"·--· .IYI-mrrur·_· ·-....,, "` I·IL_ "1: P? 5\·?:· i-d I L i· Z r f' ": .. ',r er i, ~~;"~~~~w~~~· -p· I :T :'" · 33·1 .·· c-'z r .-c--··-·· VOLUME 93 NUJMBER~ i CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 'I a se stU~ ,as. "c Hs By Paul Schindler tuition income. Due to vari- dorms) combined with the large The class of 1977 will be ations in student need, marginal size of recent classes produced a targeted for 900 members, ac- income per student is not a housing "crunch," according to cording to Chancellor Paul E. simple, linear student-tuition re- Assistant Dean for Student Af- Gray. Historically, the number is lation. fairs Ken Browning. This over- not small, but it is a drop of 140 There has been a pattern of crowding was cited by Gray as from the record class of 1040 increasing class sizes over the last the primary reason for the re- admitted last year. five years (see graph on page 3) duction in class size. with last year's class being an "There are many forces As. mentioned previously in accidental overshoot of a target which push the class size up," The Tech (Tuesday, January 9), of 1025. Suddenly this year, a Gray noted, "but the housing the drop in class size will, ac- sharp upturn of the retention crunch is the main thing which cording to officials, have no sig- rate in the dormitories (the num- holds it down." The decision, nificant effect on financial aid or ber of people who stay in the announced in a meeting Friday morning, January 26, was de- News analysis bated for almost two weeks after it was discussed in Academic Council, and was considered pri- vately for some time before that. -
12-Ethical Subjectivism.Pdf
Metaethics Ethics and Metaethics Normative ethics: the study of goodness, virtue, and right action. • What is intrinsically good? • What is the best distribution of benefits and burdens in the world? • What traits of character do we value in people? • What rules or principles should we follow? Metaethics: the study of these moral concepts and their grounding. • What is the scope and status of moral values? • What does it mean to say that “X is good”? • Do moral claims like “X is good” have a truth-value? • Do moral values exist in the world independently of human beings? Subjectivism and Objectivism Ethical Subjectivism: the truth of moral judgments is grounded in an arbitrary will. • Simple Ethical Subjectivism (SES): the individual’s feelings. • Divine Command Theory (DCT): the will of God. • Ethical Relativism (ER): the beliefs of the group. EthicalArbitrary Objectivism =df. based: theon truthrandom of moral choice judgments or is groundedpersonal in some whim, non-arbitrary rather than reality any .reason or • Aristotle’ssystem: virtue his theory: mealtimes human flourishing were. entirely • John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism: pleasure. • Immanuelarbitrary. Kant’s deontologism: reason. Subjectivism and Objectivism Ethical Subjectivism: the truth of moral judgments is grounded in an arbitrary will. • Simple Ethical Subjectivism (SES): the individual’s feelings. • Divine Command Theory (DCT): the will of God. • Ethical Relativism (ER): the beliefs of the group. Ethical Objectivism: the truth of moral judgments is grounded in some non-arbitrary reality. • Aristotle’s virtue theory: human flourishing. • John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism: pleasure. • Immanuel Kant’s deontologism: reason. Simple Ethical Subjectivism (1/4) “Take any action allow'd to be vicious: Wilful murder, for instance. -
Introduction to Ethical Studies Introduction to Ethical Studies
Introduction to Ethical Studies Introduction to Ethical Studies An Open Source Reader Lee Archie John G. Archie Copyright © 2003 by Lee Archie; John G. Archie GDFL The current version, Version 0.11, of this open source textbook in philosophy is a work-in-progress and is being released in draft form. The collaborators would be grateful for corrections or other suggestions to this preliminary draft. Please address comments to [email protected] . Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License." Image Credits American Sociological Association. Charles A. Ellwood. Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library. University of Pennsylvania. Adaptations: Charles Darwin with Friedrich Wöhler. Antropologica, Helsinki, Finland. Edward Westermarck from The Edward Westermarck Memorial Lectures. Antiquities Project. Aristotle; Epictetus; David Hume; Immanuel Kant; Map of the Roman Empire; John Stuart Mill; Nero Persecuting the Christians; Plato; Socrates. www.thais.it. Balestrini, Bruno. The Erechtheion and Parthenon, (420-440 B.C.), Acropolis; Acropolis (about 500 B.C.) view from northwest. By permission. The Edward Westermarck Memorial Lectures 1983-1997. Edward Westermarck. GNU Free Documentation License. GNU Philosophical Gnu. Goodrich, S. G. A History of All Nations, (New York: J. C. Derby & N. C. Miller, 1854), 710. A Greek Galley. IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering: History of Hydraulics Collection. University of Iowa. -
Introduction to Ethics
Introduction to Ethics An Open Educational Resource Collected and Edited by Noah Levin, PhD Introduction to Ethics An Open Educational Resource Collected and Edited by Noah Levin, PhD ii Licensing Information All content contained herein is under a license that allows this work in its entirety to be reproduced and reprinted, even for commercial purposes. Due to licenses that apply to certain sections of this book, it is safest to presume this work as a whole to be under a CC-BY license. Most chapters have been released by the authors under a CC-BY license and the remaining works are either not under copyright in the United States (primarily due to the expiration of the copyright) or the work has been explicitly released into the Public Domain by the author. How to Cite this Work When citing this work, please make sure that this conforms to the rules for citing an edited volume in your citation style. For APA style, all you simply need to use is “Levin, N. (Ed). (2019). Introduction to Ethics: An Open Educational Resource. N.G.E. Far Press.” Remember that the authors of every piece in this work are noted, and if there are none listed, then it is the work of the editor. To cite a specific chapter, use the authors name and title for the chapter and include it as being from this volume (if desired, and as appropriate to your style). For example, to cite Chapter 5 in this work for APA style, you would use, “Wooldridge, B.M. (2019). The Moral Issues of Immigration.