Common Morality

Common Morality PDF Author: Bernard Gert
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198038720
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
Distinguished philosopher Bernard Gert presents a clear and concise introduction to what he calls "common morality"--the moral system that most thoughtful people implicitly use when making everyday, common sense moral decisions and judgments. Common Morality is useful in that--while not resolving every disagreement on controversial issues--it is able to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable answers to moral problems.

Common Morality

Common Morality PDF Author: Bernard Gert
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198038720
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 203

Get Book Here

Book Description
Distinguished philosopher Bernard Gert presents a clear and concise introduction to what he calls "common morality"--the moral system that most thoughtful people implicitly use when making everyday, common sense moral decisions and judgments. Common Morality is useful in that--while not resolving every disagreement on controversial issues--it is able to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable answers to moral problems.

Morality

Morality PDF Author: Jonathan Sacks
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1541675320
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
A distinguished religious leader's stirring case for reconstructing a shared framework of virtues and values. With liberal democracy embattled, public discourse grown toxic, family life breaking down, and drug abuse and depression on the rise, many fear what the future holds. In Morality, respected faith leader and public intellectual Jonathan Sacks traces today's crisis to our loss of a strong, shared moral code and our elevation of self-interest over the common good. We have outsourced morality to the market and the state, but neither is capable of showing us how to live. Sacks leads readers from ancient Greece to the Enlightenment to the present day to show that there is no liberty without morality and no freedom without responsibility, arguing that we all must play our part in rebuilding a common moral foundation. A major work of moral philosophy, Morality is an inspiring vision of a world in which we can all find our place and face the future without fear.

Prospects for a Common Morality

Prospects for a Common Morality PDF Author: Gene Outka
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400820812
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
This volume centers on debates about how far moral judgments bind across traditions and epochs. Nowadays such debates appear especially volatile, both in popular culture and intellectual discourse: although there is increasing agreement that the moral and political criteria invoked in human rights documents possess cross-cultural force, many modern and postmodern developments erode confidence in moral appeals that go beyond a local consensus or apply outside a particular community. Often the point of departure for discussion is the Enlightenment paradigm of a common morality, in which it is assumed that certain unchanging beliefs inhere in the structure of human reason. Whereas some thinkers continue to defend this paradigm, others modify it in diverse ways without abandoning entirely the attempt to address a universal audience, and still others jettison virtually all of its distinguishing features. Exhibiting a range of positions Western participants take in these debates, this volume seeks to advance the substance of the debates themselves without prejudging the outcome. Rival assessments of the Enlightenment paradigm are offered from various philosophical and theological points of view. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Robert Merrihew Adams, Annette C. Baier, Alan Donagan, Margaret A. Farley, Alan Gewirth, David Little, Richard Rorty, Jeffrey Stout, and Lee H. Yearley.

The Moral Rules

The Moral Rules PDF Author: Bernard Gert
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description


Bioethics and Secular Humanism

Bioethics and Secular Humanism PDF Author: H. Tristram Engelhardt
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1620320711
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Bioethics is vitally important in our day because it represents the critical expression of interest in the proper use of medical science to provide health care. Secular humanism is important because it is a central factor in constructing a common morality that does not make special appeal to such things as religious assumptions. The argument of this book, therefore, will be of profound interest to all who are concerned for the well-being of humanity in today's world. Imagine, the author says, Roman Catholics and committed atheists disputing over proper abortion policies. Imagine individuals who wish to organize a for-profit surrogate mother service, confronting individuals who view such endeavors as exploitation of women. To what moral premise do they appeal? Are power and influence the deciding factors, or is it possible to establish certain principles to which all may appeal? In answer, Professor Engelhardt examines the various meanings of secularity and humanism, clearly showing how complex they are. Alongside this he demonstrates the diversity of bioethics and the problems of laying a foundation for it. Based on these considerations, he identifies which ways forward are the most promising. The urgency of the task is clear. New biomedical possibilities are surfacing at the very time that demands to contain health care costs pose difficult ethical problems.

The Right to Do Wrong

The Right to Do Wrong PDF Author: Mark Osiel
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674368258
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
Common morality—in the form of shame, outrage, and stigma—has always been society’s first line of defense against ethical transgressions. Social mores crucially complement the law, Mark Osiel shows, sparing us from oppressive formal regulation. Much of what we could do, we shouldn’t—and we don’t. We have a free-speech right to be offensive, but we know we will face outrage in response. We may declare bankruptcy, but not without stigma. Moral norms constantly demand more of us than the law requires, sustaining promises we can legally break and preventing disrespectful behavior the law allows. Mark Osiel takes up this curious interplay between lenient law and restrictive morality, showing that law permits much wrongdoing because we assume that rights are paired with informal but enforceable duties. People will exercise their rights responsibly or else face social shaming. For the most part, this system has worked. Social order persists despite ample opportunity for reprehensible conduct, testifying to the decisive constraints common morality imposes on the way we exercise our legal prerogatives. The Right to Do Wrong collects vivid case studies and social scientific research to explore how resistance to the exercise of rights picks up where law leaves off and shapes the legal system in turn. Building on recent evidence that declining social trust leads to increasing reliance on law, Osiel contends that as social changes produce stronger assertions of individual rights, it becomes more difficult to depend on informal tempering of our unfettered freedoms. Social norms can be indefensible, Osiel recognizes. But the alternative—more repressive law—is often far worse. This empirically informed study leaves little doubt that robust forms of common morality persist and are essential to the vitality of liberal societies.

Kant's Defense of Common Moral Experience

Kant's Defense of Common Moral Experience PDF Author: Jeanine Grenberg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107033586
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
This book argues that everything important about Kant's moral philosophy emerges from common human experience of the conflict between happiness and morality.

Common-Sense Morality and Consequentialism

Common-Sense Morality and Consequentialism PDF Author: Michael A. Slote
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000073424
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
Originally published in 1985 and now re-issued with a new preface, this study assesses the two major moral theories of ethical consequentialism and common-sense morality by means of mutual comparison and an attempt to elicit the implications and tendencies of each theory individually. The author shows that criticisms and defences of common-sense morality and of consequentialism give inadequate characterizations of the dispute between them and thus at best provide incomplete rationales for either of these influential moral views. Both theories face inherent difficulties, some familiar but others mentioned for the first time in this work. The argument proceeds by reference to historical figures like Bentham, Ross and Sidgwick and to contemporary thinkers such as Williams, Nagel, Hare and Sen.

Common Good, Uncommon Questions

Common Good, Uncommon Questions PDF Author: Timothy Backous
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 9780814659205
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Common Good, Uncommon Questions places the Catholic Church's guidance into contemporary context by considering stories, poems, and articles to challenge preconceptions, asking what contribution the Church can make to moral debate.

Common Morality

Common Morality PDF Author: Bernard Gert
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199883947
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Distinguished philosopher Bernard Gert presents a clear and concise introduction to what he calls "common morality"--the moral system that most thoughtful people implicitly use when making everyday, common sense moral decisions and judgments. Common Morality is useful in that--while not resolving every disagreement on controversial issues--it is able to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable answers to moral problems.