Satisfaction of Interest and the Concept of Morality

Satisfaction of Interest and the Concept of Morality PDF Author: Steve Smith
Publisher: Bucknell University Press
ISBN: 9780838713839
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
This work addresses itself to the question: How is morality to be properly defined? Also explored are the distinguishing characteristics of a moral code. The conclusion to which this analysis leads is that moralities do not necessarily concern themselves with satisfaction of human interests and with conflict resolution.

Satisfaction of Interest and the Concept of Morality

Satisfaction of Interest and the Concept of Morality PDF Author: Steve Smith
Publisher: Bucknell University Press
ISBN: 9780838713839
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
This work addresses itself to the question: How is morality to be properly defined? Also explored are the distinguishing characteristics of a moral code. The conclusion to which this analysis leads is that moralities do not necessarily concern themselves with satisfaction of human interests and with conflict resolution.

The Second-Person Standpoint

The Second-Person Standpoint PDF Author: Stephen Darwall
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674034627
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Why should we avoid doing moral wrong? The inability of philosophy to answer this question in a compelling manner—along with the moral skepticism and ethical confusion that ensue—result, Stephen Darwall argues, from our failure to appreciate the essentially interpersonal character of moral obligation. After showing how attempts to vindicate morality have tended to change the subject—falling back on nonmoral values or practical, first-person considerations—Darwall elaborates the interpersonal nature of moral obligations: their inherent link to our responsibilities to one another as members of the moral community. As Darwall defines it, the concept of moral obligation has an irreducibly second-person aspect; it presupposes our authority to make claims and demands on one another. And so too do many other central notions, including those of rights, the dignity of and respect for persons, and the very concept of person itself. The result is nothing less than a fundamental reorientation of moral theory that enables it at last to account for morality's supreme authority—an account that Darwall carries from the realm of theory to the practical world of second-person attitudes, emotions, and actions.

An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals PDF Author: David Hume
Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (EPM) is a book by Scottish enlightenment philosopher David Hume. In it, Hume argues (among other things) that the foundations of morals lie with sentiment, not reason. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals is the enquiry subsequent to the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (EHU). Thus, it is often referred to as "the second Enquiry". It was originally published in 1751, three years after the first Enquiry. Hume first discusses ethics in A Treatise of Human Nature (in Book 3 - "Of Morals"). He later extracted and expounded upon the ideas he proposed there in his second Enquiry. In his short autobiographical work, My Own Life (1776), Hume states that his second Enquiry is "of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best."

Morality and Self-Interest

Morality and Self-Interest PDF Author: Paul Bloomfield
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195305841
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
The relationship between morality and self-interest is a perennial one in philosophy. For Plato, Hobbes, Kant, Aristotle, Hume, Machiavelli, and Nietzsche, it lay at the heart of moral theory. This text introduces the topic and looks at its place in philosophical history.

The Moral Skeptic

The Moral Skeptic PDF Author: Anita M. Superson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199704112
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Anita Superson challenges the traditional picture of the skeptic who asks, "Why be moral?" While holding that the skeptic's position is important, she builds an argument against it by understanding it more deeply, and then shows what it would take to successfully defeat it. Superson argues that we must defeat not only the action skeptic, but the disposition skeptic, who denies that being morally disposed is rationally required, and the motive skeptic, who believes that merely going through the motions in acting morally is rationally permissible. We also have to address the amoralist, who is not moved by moral reasons he recognizes. Superson argues for expanding the skeptic's position from self-interest to privilege to include morally unjustified behavior targeting disenfranchised social groups, as well as revising the traditional expected utility model to exclude desires deformed by patriarchy as irrational. Lastly she argues that the challenge can be answered if it can be shown that it is, in an important way, inconsistent and therefore irrational to privilege oneself over others. The Moral Skeptic makes an important contribution to both metaethics/moral theory and feminist philosophy, and brings feminist thinking into the larger discussion of the skeptical challenge.

The Virtues of Freedom

The Virtues of Freedom PDF Author: Paul Guyer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191072265
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
The essays collected in this volume by Paul Guyer, one of the world's foremost Kant scholars, explore Kant's attempt to develop a morality grounded on the intrinsic and unconditional value of the human freedom to set our own ends. When regulated by the principle that the freedom of all is equally valuable, the freedom to set our own ends -- what Kant calls "humanity" - becomes what he calls autonomy. These essays explore Kant's strategies for establishing the premise that freedom is the inner worth of the world or the essential end of humankind, as he says, and for deriving the specific duties that fundamental principle of morality generates in the empirical circumstances of human existence. The Virtues of Freedom further investigates Kant's attempts to prove that we are always free to live up to this moral ideal, that is, that we have free will no matter what, as well as his more successful explorations of the ways in which our natural tendencies to be moral -- dispositions to the feeling of respect and more specific feelings such as love and self-esteem -- can and must be cultivated and educated. Guyer finally examines the various models of human community that Kant develops from his premise that our associations must be based on the value of freedom for all. The contrasts but also similarities of Kant's moral philosophy to that of David Hume but many of his other predecessors and contemporaries, such as Stoics and Epicureans, Pufendorf and Wolff, Hutcheson, Kames, and Smith, are also explored.

Utilitarianism - Ed. Heydt

Utilitarianism - Ed. Heydt PDF Author: John Stuart Mill
Publisher: Broadview Press
ISBN: 1460402103
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism is a philosophical defense of utilitarianism, a moral theory stating that right actions are those that tend to promote overall happiness. The essay first appeared as a series of articles published in Fraser’s Magazine in 1861; the articles were collected and reprinted as a single book in 1863. Mill discusses utilitarianism in some of his other works, including On Liberty and The Subjection of Women, but Utilitarianism contains his only sustained defence of the theory. In this Broadview Edition, Colin Heydt provides a substantial introduction that will enable readers to understand better the polemical context for Utilitarianism. Heydt shows, for example, how Mill’s moral philosophy grew out of political engagement, rather than exclusively out of a speculative interest in determining the nature of morality. Appendices include precedents to Mill’s work, reactions to Utilitarianism, and related writings by Mill.

Rethinking Mill's Ethics

Rethinking Mill's Ethics PDF Author: Colin Heydt
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1847142923
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Discussion of John Stuart Mill's ethics has been dominated by concern with right and wrong action as determined by the principle of utility. Colin Heydt's book unearths the rich context of moral and socio-political debate that Mill did not have to make explicit to his Victorian readers, in order to enrich the philosophical analysis of his ethics and to show a famous and misunderstood moralist in a new light.

A Theory of the Good and the Right

A Theory of the Good and the Right PDF Author: Richard B. Brandt
Publisher: Great Minds
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
What system of morals should rational people select as the best for society? Using a contemporary psychological theory of action and of motivation, Richard Brandt's Oxford lectures argue that the purpose of living should be to strive for the greatest good for the largest number of people. Brandt's discussions range from the concept of welfare to conflict between utilitarian moral codes and the dictates of self-interest.

Ethics Done Right

Ethics Done Right PDF Author: Elijah Millgram
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521839433
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Examines how practical reasoning can be put into the service of ethical and moral theory.