Moral neutrality and contemporary ethical theory
Author: David Solomon
Publisher:
Published: 1972
Total Pages: 398
ISBN-13:
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Moral Pluralism and Legal Neutrality
Author: Wojciech Sadurski
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Published: 2013-12-14
Total Pages: 225
ISBN-13: 940091928X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKlt is a commonplace that law and morality intersect and interpenetrate in all the areas of legal decision-making; that in order to make sense of constitutional, statutory or common-law questions, judges and other legal decision-makers must first resolve certain philosophical issues which include moral judgments of right and wrang_ This is particularly evident with regard to constitutional interpretation, especially when constitutions give a mandate for the protection of the substantive norms and values entrenched as constitutional rights. In these Situations, as a leading contemporary legal philosopher observed, the "Constitution fuses legal and moral issues, by making the validity of a law depend on an answer to complex moral 1 problems". But the need for substantive value elucidation is not confined, of course, only to constitutional interpretation under Bills of Rights. This, however, immediately raises a dilemma stemming from the moral diversity and pluralism of modern liberal societies. How can law remain sensitive to this pluralism and yet provide clear answers to the problems which call for a legal resolution? Sharply conflicting values in modern societies clash in the debates over the death penalty, abortion, homosexuality, separation of state and religion, the scope of the freedom of the press, or affirmative action. lt would often be difficult to discern a broader consensus within which these clashes of values operate, unless this consensus were described in such vague terms as to render it practically meaningless.
Ethics Under Moral Neutrality
Author: Evan Gregg Williams
Publisher:
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 256
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKHow should we act when uncertain about the moral truth, or when trying to remain neutral between competing moral theories? This dissertation argues that some types of actions and policies are relatively likely to be approved by a very wide range of moral theories--even theories which have never yet been formulated, or which appear to cancel out one another's advice. For example, I argue that actions and policies which increase a moral agent's access to primary goods also tend to increase that agent's likelihood of bringing about good consequences, even under varying and mutually incompatible hypotheses about what consequences count as "good". We therefore have a subjective, pro tanto moral reason to perform such actions and enact such policies--one whose justification does not require treating any particular theory as especially probable, but instead merely requires treating at least one at-least-partly consequentialist moral theory as an open hypothesis, and is therefore applicable even under conditions of moral uncertainty or moral neutrality. My discussion begins abstractly, but as it progresses it gradually applies its framework to increasingly concrete issues. I find that the justification of some liberal policies--in the classical sense of "liberal"--Can be accomplished with significantly fewer moral assumptions than have traditionally been relied upon.
Value, Welfare, and Morality
Author: Raymond Gillespie Frey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1993-10-07
Total Pages: 338
ISBN-13: 0521416965
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAddressing critical issues in normative ethical theory, a subject of considerable controversy in contemporary ethics, these original essays provide an overview, analysis, and attempted resolution of the controversies which have arisen in part because of the current reconsideration of utilitarianism.
The Ethics of Aquinas
Author: Stephen J. Pope
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 516
ISBN-13: 9780878408887
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn this comprehensive anthology, twenty-seven outstanding scholars from North America and Europe address every major aspect of Thomas Aquinas's understanding of morality and comment on his remarkable legacy. While there has been a revival of interest in recent years in the ethics of St. Thomas, no single work has yet fully examined the basic moral arguments and content of Aquinas' major moral work, the Second Part of the Summa Theologiae. This work fills that lacuna. The first chapters of The Ethics of Aquinas introduce readers to the sources, methods, and major themes of Aquinas's ethics. The second part of the book provides an extended discussion of ideas in the Second Part of the Summa Theologiae, in which contributors present cogent interpretations of the structure, major arguments, and themes of each of the treatises. The third and final part examines aspects of Thomistic ethics in the twentieth century and beyond. These essays reflect a diverse group of scholars representing a variety of intellectual perspectives. Contributors span numerous fields of study, including intellectual history, medieval studies, moral philosophy, religious ethics, and moral theology. This remarkable variety underscores how interpretations of Thomas's ethics continue to develop and evolve-and stimulate fervent discussion within the academy and the church. This volume is aimed at scholars, students, clergy, and all those who continue to find Aquinas a rich source of moral insight.
Rightness and Goodness
Author: Oliver A. Johnson
Publisher: Springer
Published: 1959
Total Pages: 180
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book is the result of a project that I started work on a decade ago but later laid aside for several years. At the time I began my study of the deontologists it was my impression that the movement was virtually ended, with only a historical interest for ethicists. Since then, I have revised my opinion. Although few writers today can be called followers of the deontologists, much that is being written, even by those who reject the deontologists' basic assumptions, bears witness of their influence. The continuing vitality of deontological ethics, it seems to me, rests mainly on the deontologists' profound respect for the concrete facts of man's moral life. In evaluating any ethical theory, the question they ask is not, Is the theory neat and simple? but rather, Does it accurately reflect our deepest moral convictions? In its persistent attempt to do justice to the facts, even if this means abandoning the major tradition in the history of Western ethics, lies the main strength of the deontologists' position. Whatever the fate of their own theory may be, the deontologists have, in their real concern for the facts, made a significant and, I think, lasting contribution to ethical thought. Many people - far too many to mention here - have helped in one way or another with the production of this book.
Ethics Consultation
Author: Mark P. Aulisio
Publisher: JHU Press
Published: 2003-05-08
Total Pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9780801871658
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn the clinical setting, questions of medical ethics raise a host of perplexing problems, often complicated by conflicting perspectives and the need to make immediate decisions. In this volume, bioethicists and physicians provide a nuanced, in-depth approach to the difficult issues involved in bioethics consultation. Addressing the needs of researchers, clinicians, and other health professionals on the front lines of bioethics practice, the contributors focus primarily on practical concerns—whether ethics consultation is best done by individuals, teams, or committees; how an ethics consult service should be structured; the need for institutional support; and techniques and programs for educating and training staff—without neglecting more theoretical considerations, such as the importance of character or the viability of organizational ethics.
For an Ontology of Morals
Author: Henry Babcock Veatch
Publisher:
Published: 1971
Total Pages: 200
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book critiques contemporary trends in ethical theory, including the deontological tradition dating back to Kant, the teleological tradition of the utilitarians, the analytic movement, and the existentialist-phenomenologist movement. In refuting these trends, Veatch argues that moral and ethical distinctions cannot be rightly or adequately understood if they are regarded simply as matters of linguistic use but are grounded in the very being and nature of things.
Situating the Self
Author: Seyla Benhabib
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-08-26
Total Pages: 280
ISBN-13: 1000158500
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book is an attempt to defend the tradition of universalism in the face of a triple-pronged critique by engaging with the claims of feminism, communitarianism, and postmodernism and by learning from them. It situates reason and the moral self more decisively in contexts of gender and community.
Right, Wrong and Science
Author: Evandro Agazzi
Publisher: Rodopi
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 386
ISBN-13: 9789042009196
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSolving the problem of the negative impact of science and technology on society and the environment is indeed the greatest challenge of our time. To date, this challenge has been taken up by few professional philosophers of science, making this volume a welcome contribution to the general debate. Agazzi's treatment involves viewing modern science and technology as each constituting systems. Against the background of this approach, he provides a penetrating analysis of science, technology and ethics, and their interrelations. Agazzi sees the solution to the problem as lying in the moral sphere and including a multilateral assumption of responsibility on the part of decision makers both within and outside of science.
