Acts, Intentions, and Moral Evaluation

Acts, Intentions, and Moral Evaluation PDF Author: Craig M. White
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000810968
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
This book argues that the moral quality of an act comes from the agent’s inner states. By arguing for the indispensable relevance of intention in the moral evaluation of acts, the book moves against a mainstream, "objective" approach in normative ethics. It is commonly held that the intentions, knowledge, and volition of agents are irrelevant to the moral permissibility of their acts. This book stresses that the capacities of agency, rather than simply the label "agent," must be engaged during an act if its moral evaluation is to be coherent. The author begins with an ontological argument that an act is a motion or a causing of change in something else. He argues that the source of an act’s moral meaning is in the agent: specifically, what the agent, if aware of relevant facts around her, aims to accomplish. He then moves to a series of critical chapters that consider arguments for mainstream approaches to act evaluation, including Thomson’s dismissal of the agent knowledge and volition requirements, Scanlon’s arguments for a derivative relevance of intentions to permissibility, Frowe’s "causal roles" of agents in the moral evaluation of acts, and Bennett’s explicit defense of the objective approach. The book concludes by offering the author’s preferred replacement for the objective approach, an Aristotelian-Thomist view of acts. Acts, Intentions, and Moral Evaluation will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in ethics, just war theory, the ethics of self-defense, and philosophy of action.

Acts, Intentions, and Moral Evaluation

Acts, Intentions, and Moral Evaluation PDF Author: Craig M. White
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000810968
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 165

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book argues that the moral quality of an act comes from the agent’s inner states. By arguing for the indispensable relevance of intention in the moral evaluation of acts, the book moves against a mainstream, "objective" approach in normative ethics. It is commonly held that the intentions, knowledge, and volition of agents are irrelevant to the moral permissibility of their acts. This book stresses that the capacities of agency, rather than simply the label "agent," must be engaged during an act if its moral evaluation is to be coherent. The author begins with an ontological argument that an act is a motion or a causing of change in something else. He argues that the source of an act’s moral meaning is in the agent: specifically, what the agent, if aware of relevant facts around her, aims to accomplish. He then moves to a series of critical chapters that consider arguments for mainstream approaches to act evaluation, including Thomson’s dismissal of the agent knowledge and volition requirements, Scanlon’s arguments for a derivative relevance of intentions to permissibility, Frowe’s "causal roles" of agents in the moral evaluation of acts, and Bennett’s explicit defense of the objective approach. The book concludes by offering the author’s preferred replacement for the objective approach, an Aristotelian-Thomist view of acts. Acts, Intentions, and Moral Evaluation will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in ethics, just war theory, the ethics of self-defense, and philosophy of action.

Acts, Intentions, and Moral Evaluation

Acts, Intentions, and Moral Evaluation PDF Author: Craig M. White
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781032298269
Category : Act (Philosophy)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book argues that the moral quality of an act comes from the agent's inner states. By arguing for the indispensable relevance of intention in the moral evaluation of acts, the book moves against a mainstream, 'objective' approach in normative ethics. It is commonly held that the intentions, knowledge, and volition of agents are irrelevant to the moral permissibility of their acts. This book stresses that the capacities of agency, rather than simply the label 'agent', must be engaged during an act if its moral evaluation is to be coherent. The author begins with an ontological argument that an act is a motion or a causing of change in something else. He argues that the source of an act's moral meaning is in the agent: specifically, what the agent, if aware of relevant facts around her, aims to accomplish. He then moves to a series of critical chapters that consider arguments for mainstream approaches to act evaluation, including Thomson's dismissal of the agent knowledge and volition requirements, Scanlon's arguments for a derivative relevance of intentions to permissibility, Frowe's causal roles of agents in the moral evaluation of acts, and Bennett's explicit defense of the objective approach. The book concludes by offering the author's preferred replacement for the objective approach, an Aristotelian-Thomist view of acts. Acts, Intentions, and Moral Evaluation will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in ethics, just war theory, the ethics of self-defense, and philosophy of action.

Killing and Letting Die

Killing and Letting Die PDF Author: Bonnie Steinbock
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 153151085X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Available in a new digital edition with reflowable text suitable for e-readers This collection contains twenty-one thought-provoking essays on the controversies surrounding the moral and legal distinctions between euthanasia and "letting die." Since public awareness of this issue has increased this second edition includes nine entirely new essays which bring the treatment of the subject up-to-date. The urgency of this issue can be gauged in recent developments such as the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in the Netherlands, "how-to" manuals topping the bestseller charts in the United States, and the many headlines devoted to Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who has assisted dozens of patients to die. The essays address the range of questions involved in this issue pertaining especially to the fields of medical ethics, public policymaking, and social philosophy. The discussions consider the decisions facing medical and public policymakers, how those decisions will affect the elderly and terminally ill, and the medical and legal ramifications for patients in a permanently vegetative state, as well as issues of parent/infant rights. The book is divided into two sections. The first, "Euthanasia and the Termination of Life-Prolonging Treatment" includes an examination of the 1976 Karen Quinlan Supreme Court decision and selections from the 1990 Supreme Court decision in the case of Nancy Cruzan. Featured are articles by law professor George Fletcher and philosophers Michael Tooley, James Rachels, and Bonnie Steinbock, with new articles by Rachels, and Thomas Sullivan. The second section, "Philosophical Considerations," probes more deeply into the theoretical issues raised by the killing/letting die controversy, illustrating exceptionally well the dispute between two rival theories of ethics, consequentialism and deontology. It also includes a corpus of the standard thought on the debate by Jonathan Bennet, Daniel Dinello, Jeffrie Murphy, John Harris, Philipa Foot, Richard Trammell, and N. Ann Davis, and adds articles new to this edition by Bennett, Foot, Warren Quinn, Jeff McMahan, and Judith Lichtenberg.

Early Moral Cognition and Behavior

Early Moral Cognition and Behavior PDF Author: Kelsey Lucca
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889631885
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description


Expanding Responsibility for the Just War

Expanding Responsibility for the Just War PDF Author: Rosemary Kellison
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108473148
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
This feminist critique of just war reasoning argues for an expansion of responsibility for harms inflicted on civilians in war.

God, Knowledge, and the Good

God, Knowledge, and the Good PDF Author: Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197612385
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
This volume collects the published articles in philosophy of religion by the pre-eminent philosopher Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski. The volume focuses on the major themes of her career, which is reflected in the sections of the volume: 1) Foreknowledge and Fatalism, 2) The Problem of Evil, 3) Death, Hell, and Resurrection, 4) God and Morality, 5) Omnisubjectivity, 6) The Rationality of Religious Belief, 7) Rational Religious Belief, Self-Trust, and Authority, and 8) God, Trinity, and the Metaphysics of Modality. A companion volume to Epistemic Values, her collected articles in epistemology, this volume will be an important resource for scholars in the philosophy of religion, religious epistemology, and religious ethics.

The Morality of War - Second Edition

The Morality of War - Second Edition PDF Author: Brian Orend
Publisher: Broadview Press
ISBN: 1554810957
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
The first edition of The Morality of War was one of the most widely-read and successful books ever written on the topic. In this second edition, Brian Orend builds on the substantial strengths of the first, adding important new material on: cyber-warfare; drone attacks; the wrap-up of Iraq and Afghanistan; conflicts in Libya and Syria; and protracted struggles (like the Arab-Israeli conflict). Updated and streamlined throughout, the book offers new research tools and case studies, while keeping the winning blend of theory and history featured in the first edition. This book remains an engaging and comprehensive examination of the ethics, and practice, of war and peace in today’s world.

The Concept of Intrinsic Evil and Catholic Theological Ethics

The Concept of Intrinsic Evil and Catholic Theological Ethics PDF Author: Nenad Polgar
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1978703252
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
One of the most sweeping, categorical, and absolute phrases that has ever been employed by the hierarchical teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church refers to a concept called ‘intrinsic evil’. In short, intrinsic evil is invoked to describe certain kinds of human acts that can never be morally justified or permitted, regardless of the intention of the person who performs them or any circumstances within which they take place. The most common examples of things that people recognize as being classified as intrinsically evil are, suicide, euthanasia, abortion, and the use of contraception. The ease with which the term ‘intrinsic evil’ gets right to the point, thereby making the fairly complex field of ethical reflection seem manageable and widely accessible, is one of the reasons for its attractiveness within Roman Catholic ethical teaching. However, this kind of simplification risks or even encourages avoidance of critical questions such as, "Where does this concept come from and what meanings are associated with it?", "Is it supposed to express an ethical judgment or to form it?", and "Is there a substantial difference between intrinsically evil acts and morally wrong acts?". The contributors to this volume engage with these and similar issues surrounding the formation and use of the concept, and in the process dispel the naïve belief that the concept can somehow escape the complexity of ethical discourse or establish certainty of ethical judgments that is otherwise unattainable. In light of this realization, the most important issue becomes whether the concept can still be useful for Catholic theological ethics. Although the contributors to this volume do not completely agree on this issue, they have shown that a critical scrutiny of the concept must necessarily precede settling this issue and that the concept might not be able to withstand such critical judgment. The book provides a description of the origin and meanings of the concept of intrinsic evil. While the term itself tends to create confusion rather than clarity, eliminating its use does not imply that we cannot still have a meaningful discussion about ‘things that should never be done’.

Applied Professional Ethics

Applied Professional Ethics PDF Author: Gregory R. Beabout
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 1461677424
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
This innovative book is written in an accessible, compact style that sets forth and explains a sound framework for professional ethics that readers can quickly put into practice in analyzing and writing about cases. Through a series of moral conflicts, it aims at improving the skills of moral reasoning and achieving moral development.

John Paul II's Contribution to Catholic Bioethics

John Paul II's Contribution to Catholic Bioethics PDF Author: Christopher Tollefsen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402031297
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Any list of the most influential figures of the second half of the twentieth century would arguably have to begin with the name of Pope John Paul II. From 1978, when he was inaugurated, to the present, over a quarter of a century later, the Pope has been a dominant force in the world, both within the Catholic and Christian Church, and in the larger international community. Among the areas in which the Pope has been of signal importance to contemporary discussion, argument, and policy has been the field of bioethics. This collection brings together for the first time in an accessible and readable form a summary and assessment of John Paul II's contribution to bioethical issues and theories. It includes discussion of the Pope's views on the dignity of the person and the sanctity of human life, and the application of these views to various difficulties in medical ethics such as abortion and embryo research, the right to health care and the problem of suffering. Throughout, attention is paid to the way in which the Pope stands as a recognizably authentic voice for the Catholic faith in the medical arena.