Basic Moral Philosophy,9780495007975

Basic Moral Philosophy

by Holmes,Robert L.

Edition: 4th

ISBN13: 9780495007975

ISBN10: 0495007978

Format: Paperback

Pub. Date: 2014-03-14

Publisher(s): Cengage High School

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Summary

Who ever heard of an easy-to-understand philosophy book? Now there is one. BASIC MORAL PHILOSOPHY presents clear information on the major ethical and philosophical theories that you can actually comprehend. Whether it's bioethics or broad moral philosophy, BASIC MORAL PHILOSOPHY is the ethics textbook that gives you an introduction to the tough questions and helps you get a great grade in class also.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. X
The Concerns of Moral Philosophy
The Nature of Ethics	p. 1
Why Study Moral Philosophy?	p. 1
The Origins of Morality	p. 2
The Activity of Evaluating	p. 3
Guiding and Directing Conduct	p. 4
Value Judgments and Prescriptive Judgments	p. 4
Normative Judgments and Descriptive Statements	p. 5
Moral and Nonmoral Judgments	p. 6
Three Kinds of Moral Problems	p. 7
Notes	p. 10
Discussion Questions	p. 11
Theories of Moral Right and Wrong	p. 12
Moral Legalism and Moral Particularism	p. 12
Rights-Based Theories	p. 15
The Relationship Between Goodness and Rightness	p. 15
Axiological and Deontological Moral Theories	p. 17
Strong and Weak Deontologism	p. 17
Consequentialist and Nonconsequentialist Axiological Theories	p. 18
The Balance of Good and Bad in Consequences	p. 19
The Good of Self, Others, and Collectivities	p. 20
Micro Ethics and Macro Ethics	p. 21
Outline	p. 22
Character and Conduct	p. 22
Notes	p. 23
Discussion Questions	p. 24
The Ethics of Virtue
Virtue in Ancient Philosophy	p. 25
Kinds of Virtue	p. 25
Plato and the Virtuous Person	p. 26
The Soul's Function	p. 27
Virtue, Goodness, and Right Conduct	p. 29
Some Parallels in Hindu Ethics	p. 31
Aristotle and the Habits of Virtue	p. 33
The Mean	p. 35
Moral Perceptions	p. 35
The Practical Syllogism	p. 36
Aristotle's Deontologism	p. 37
Moral Virtue and Right Conduct	p. 39
The Priority of an Ethics of Conduct over an Ethics of Virtue	p. 39
Notes	p. 41
Discussion Questions	p. 41
Virtue and Happiness	p. 43
Plato and Aristotle on the Necessity of Virtue for Happiness	p. 43
Perfectionism and the Highest Good	p. 45
Augustine and the Permanence of the Highest Good	p. 46
Does Everyone Desire Happiness? Nietzsche on Master Morality and Slave Morality	p. 48
Is Moral Virtue Desirable?	p. 51
The Importance of an Account of Conduct for the Ethics of Virtue	p. 53
Notes	p. 53
Discussion Questions	p. 54
The Ethics of Conduct
Ethical and Psychological Egoism	p. 55
Should We Seek Only Our Own Good?	p. 55
Three Objections to Ethical Egoism	p. 56
The Paradoxical Nature of Ethical Egoism	p. 59
Psychological Egoism in Human Motivation	p. 60
A Critique of Psychological Egoism	p. 61
Butler's Argument	p. 62
Notes	p. 65
Discussion Questions	p. 65
The Divine Command Theory	p. 66
The Case of Abraham and Isaac	p. 66
Greek and Christian Views of Human Nature	p. 67
God's Commands According to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam	p. 67
The Relationship Between God's Will and Moral Rightness	p. 68
A Problem for the Divine Command Theory	p. 70
Commands to Do What Seems Impossibly Idealistic	p. 71
An Attempted Reconciliation of the Commandment to Love with Human Judgments of What Is Possible	p. 72
Does God Ever Command Us to Do What Is Wrong?	p. 73
An Attempted Reconciliation of God's Commands with Human Judgments	p. 74
Would God's Commanding the Torture of a Child Make It Right?	p. 75
What Does It Mean to Call God Good?	p. 76
Is God Extrinsically Good Because He Is a Loving God?	p. 78
Can "Right" Be Defined by Reference to God's Commands?	p. 79
Conclusion	p. 80
Notes	p. 81
Discussion Questions	p. 82
Natural Law Ethics	p. 84
Morality and Nature	p. 84
What Does Natural Law Ethics Mean by "Nature"?	p. 85
Stoic Natural Law Ethics	p. 86
The Stoic Conception of Duty	p. 89
Christian Natural Law Ethics	p. 90
Saint Thomas Aquinas	p. 91
Human and Theological Virtues	p. 91
Problems for Natural Law Ethics: Homosexuality and Sexual Harassment	p. 93
Natural Law as Social, Political, and Legal Philosophy	p. 96
Is God Necessary for Ethics?	p. 96
Notes	p. 98
Discussion Questions	p. 99
Kantianism	p. 100
Morality Is Not Founded on Happiness	p. 100
The Good Will	p. 101
The Concept of Duty	p. 102
Objective Principles and Hypothetical Imperatives	p. 103
Subjective Principles or Maxims	p. 106
The Categorical Imperative	p. 107
Applying the Categorical Imperative	p. 108
Treating Persons as Ends	p. 111
The Will as Universal Lawgiver	p. 112
Kant Not a Consequentialist	p. 113
Notes	p. 115
Discussion Questions	p. 116
Consequentialism	p. 117
The Attraction of Consequentialism	p. 117
Deontological Consequentialism	p. 118
Utilitarianism	p. 119
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Value	p. 119
Problems for Utilitarianism	p. 121
Act Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism	p. 124
Actual Rule Utilitarianism and Ideal Rule Utilitarianism	p. 125
Are AU and IRU Equivalent?	p. 127
Can We Ever Know all of an Act's Consequences?	p. 128
What Counts as a Consequence of an Act?	p. 130
Conclusion	p. 132
Notes	p. 132
Discussion Questions	p. 133
Justice	p. 135
The Idea of Justice	p. 135
Distributive Justice	p. 137
Justice, Consistency, and Rationality	p. 138
Three Conceptions of Distributive Justice	p. 139
Distributive Justice as Pure Procedural Justice	p. 143
The Transition to Metaethics	p. 145
Notes	p. 146
Discussion Questions	p. 147
Metaethics
Ethical Relativism	p. 149
Cultural Diversity	p. 149
What Is Ethical Relativism?	p. 150
Universalism and Absolutism	p. 151
What Difference Does It Make Whether Relativism Is True?	p. 153
Relativism and Moral Disagreements	p. 154
Can There Even Be Genuine Moral Disagreements According to Relativism?	p. 156
Is There Cultural Diversity in Basic Moral Beliefs?	p. 157
Cultural Diversity in Basic Moral Beliefs Would Not Establish Relativism	p. 158
Universalism and the Ground of Morality	p. 160
Are Logic and Truth Themselves Relative?	p. 161
Relativism and Moral Tolerance	p. 162
Conclusion	p. 163
Notes	p. 163
Discussion Questions	p. 166
Can Moral Principles Be Justified?	p. 167
Diversity at the Level of Principles	p. 167
Moral Foundationalism: Intuitionism and Naturalism	p. 168
Ethical Naturalism	p. 170
Contractarianism	p. 171
Rawls and the Original Position	p. 171
Moral Coherentism	p. 174
Problems in the Application of Rules and Principles	p. 175
Notes	p. 177
Discussion Questions	p. 178
The Nature of Moral Judgments	p. 179
Ethical Language	p. 179
Categories of Ethical Terms	p. 180
Categorial and Cross-Categorial Definitions	p. 181
Are Rights Reducible to Deontic and Value Terms?	p. 183
Are Ethical Terms Definable by Non-Ethical Terms?	p. 184
Is Ethics Autonomous?	p. 185
Autonomy and Reductionism	p. 186
Is "Good" Indefinable?	p. 187
Moral Realism	p. 188
Cognitivism	p. 189
Ethical Naturalism and Intuitionism	p. 190
The Naturalistic Fallacy	p. 192
The Open-Question Argument	p. 194
The Error Theory	p. 196
Noncognitivism	p. 197
From Meaning to Use	p. 199
The Noncognitivist Objection to Cognitivism	p. 200
Possible Cognitivist Replies	p. 201
Notes	p. 202
Discussion Questions	p. 204
New Bearings in Ethics
Feminist Ethics	p. 206
Questioning Traditional Ethics	p. 206
What Is Feminist Ethics?	p. 207
Minimalist Feminist Ethics: Wollstonecraft's Rights-Based Theory	p. 209
A Standard Feminist Ethics: The Ethics of Caring	p. 212
Radical Feminist Ethics	p. 215
Feminist Objections to Traditional Ethics	p. 216
Interpreting Feminist Ethics	p. 220
Notes	p. 222
Discussion Questions	p. 223
Contextualism: An Ethics of Pragmatism	p. 224
A Deweyan Approach to Ethics	p. 224
Subjective, Actual, and Actionable Rightness	p. 224
The Contextualist Alternative	p. 226
Elements of the Moral Situation	p. 227
Nurturing Goods	p. 228
A Kantian Objection	p. 230
The Importance of Personal Decision	p. 230
Intuition or Emotion?	p. 232
Conscience and Human Nature	p. 233
Contextualism and Relativism	p. 234
Universalism and a Moral Postulate	p. 235
Notes	p. 236
Discussion Questions	p. 238
Appendix	p. 239
Index	p. 241
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