Rationality, Rules, and Ideals

Rationality, Rules, and Ideals PDF Author: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742513174
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Bernard Gert's moral theory is among the clearest and most comprehensive on the contemporary scene. It touches on elements of the dominant ethical orientations---utilitarianism, Kantianism, contractionism, and virtue ethics--without fitting neatly into any of those categories. For that reason, Gert's moral theory appeals to many ethicists dissatisfied with each of the dominant formulations. Rationality, Rules, and Ideals presents Gert's Morality, the reactions by a number of prominent scholars, and Gert's response. All told, it is a remarkably wide-ranging study of ethical theory. The work is broken down into six parts, making Rationality, Rules, and Ideals perfect for a broad-ranging course on ethical theory, following Gert's critiques of utilitariansim, Kantianism, and virtue ethics. Both students and professionals will find much material to work with in this volume. The papers contribute not only to the understanding of Gert's wide-ranging theory but to a number of important topics in ethic theory, the theory of rationality, and applied ethics.

Rationality, Rules, and Ideals

Rationality, Rules, and Ideals PDF Author: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742513174
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 342

Get Book Here

Book Description
Bernard Gert's moral theory is among the clearest and most comprehensive on the contemporary scene. It touches on elements of the dominant ethical orientations---utilitarianism, Kantianism, contractionism, and virtue ethics--without fitting neatly into any of those categories. For that reason, Gert's moral theory appeals to many ethicists dissatisfied with each of the dominant formulations. Rationality, Rules, and Ideals presents Gert's Morality, the reactions by a number of prominent scholars, and Gert's response. All told, it is a remarkably wide-ranging study of ethical theory. The work is broken down into six parts, making Rationality, Rules, and Ideals perfect for a broad-ranging course on ethical theory, following Gert's critiques of utilitariansim, Kantianism, and virtue ethics. Both students and professionals will find much material to work with in this volume. The papers contribute not only to the understanding of Gert's wide-ranging theory but to a number of important topics in ethic theory, the theory of rationality, and applied ethics.

Rationality and Moral Theory

Rationality and Moral Theory PDF Author: Diane Jeske
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135854653
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
This book combines the details of the lived moral life – the context in which many of our most pressing moral questions arise – with theoretical rigor in offering an account of the nature of reasons, how we come to have moral knowledge, and how we can adjudicate between competing positions.

Rational Rules

Rational Rules PDF Author: Shaun Nichols
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192640194
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Moral systems, like normative systems more broadly, involve complex mental representations. Rational Rules proposes that moral learning can be understood in terms of general-purpose rational learning procedures. Nichols argues that statistical learning can help answer a wide range of questions about moral thought: Why do people think that rules apply to actions rather than consequences? Why do people expect new rules to be focused on actions rather than consequences? How do people come to believe a principle of liberty, according to which whatever is not expressly prohibited is permitted? How do people decide that some normative claims hold universally while others hold only relative to some group? The resulting account has both empiricist and rationalist features: since the learning procedures are domain-general, the result is an empiricist theory of a key part of moral development, and since the learning procedures are forms of rational inference, the account entails that crucial parts of our moral system enjoy rational credentials. Moral rules can also be rational in the sense that they can be effective for achieving our ends, given our ecological settings. Rational Rules argues that at least some central components of our moral systems are indeed ecologically rational: they are good at helping us attain common goals. Nichols argues that the account might be extended to capture moral motivation as a special case of a much more general phenomenon of normative motivation. On this view, a basic form of rule representation brings motivation along automatically, and so part of the explanation for why we follow moral rules is that we are built to follow rules quite generally.

Morality as Rationality

Morality as Rationality PDF Author: Barbara Herman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317230930
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
First published in 1990. The aim of this thesis is to show that the way to understand the central claims of Kant’s ethics is to accept the idea that morality is a distinctive form of rationality; that the moral "ought" belongs to a system of imperatives based in practical reason; and that moral judgment, therefore, is a species of rational assessment of agents’ actions. It argues, in effect, that you cannot understand Kant’s views about morality if you read him with Humean assumptions about rationality. This title will be of interest to students of philosophy.

Instrumental Rationality and Moral Philosophy

Instrumental Rationality and Moral Philosophy PDF Author: B. Verbeek
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789401599832
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description


Commonsense Consequentialism

Commonsense Consequentialism PDF Author: Douglas W. Portmore
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199794537
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
This is a book about morality, rationality, and the interconnections between the two. In it, Portmore defends a version of consequentialism that both comports with our commonsense moral intuitions and shares with consequentialist theories the same compelling teleological conception of practical reasons.

Natural Law and Practical Rationality

Natural Law and Practical Rationality PDF Author: Mark C. Murphy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521802291
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
A defense of a contemporary natural law theory of practical rationality.

Rational Choice and Moral Agency

Rational Choice and Moral Agency PDF Author: David Schmidtz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780691029184
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
Is it rational to be moral? How do rationality and morality fit together with being human? These questions are at the heart of David Schmidtz's exploration of the connections between rationality and morality. This inquiry leads into both metaethics and rational choice theory, as Schmidtz develops conceptions of what it is to be moral and what it is to be rational. He defends a fairly expansive conception of rational choice, considering how ends as well as means can be rationally chosen and explaining the role of self-imposed constraints in a rational life plan. His moral theory is dualistic, ranging over social structure as well as personal conduct and building both individual and collective rationality into its rules of recognition for morals. To the "why be moral" question, Schmidtz responds that being moral is rational, but he does not assume we have reasons to be rational. Instead, Schmidtz argues that being moral is rational in a particular way and that beings like us in situations like ours have reasons to be rational in just that way. This approach allows him to identify decisive reasons to be moral; at the same time, it explains why immorality is as prevalent as it is. This book thus offers a set of interesting and realistic conclusions about how morality fits into the lives of humanly rational agents operating in an institutional context like our own.

The Value of Humanity in Kant's Moral Theory

The Value of Humanity in Kant's Moral Theory PDF Author: Richard Dean
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199285721
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The humanity formulation of Kant's Categorical Imperative demands that we treat humanity as an end in itself. Because this principle resonates with currently influential ideals of human rights and dignity, contemporary readers often find it compelling, even if the rest of Kant's moral philosophy leaves them cold. Moreover, some prominent specialists in Kant's ethics have recently turned to the humanity formulation as the most theoretically central and promising principle of Kant'sethics. Nevertheless, it has received less attention than many other aspects of Kant's ethics. Richard Dean offers the most sustained and systematic examination of the humanity formulation to date. He presents an original analysis of what it means to treat humanity as an end in itself, and examinesthe implications both for Kant scholarship and for practical guidance on specific moral issues.

The Ideal of a Rational Morality

The Ideal of a Rational Morality PDF Author: Marcus George Singer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198250210
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
This is a collection of essays by moral philosopher Marcus George Singer in which the guiding theme is the concept of a morality based in reason, which is presupposed in ordinary moral contexts and provides an ideal for improving ordinary morality and correcting moral judgements.