The Elimination of Morality

The Elimination of Morality PDF Author: Anne Maclean
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134866712
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Elimination of Morality

The Elimination of Morality PDF Author: Anne Maclean
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134866712
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 189

Get Book Here

Book Description
First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Elimination of Morality

The Elimination of Morality PDF Author: Anne Maclean
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134866704
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The Elimination of Morality strikes at the root of the dominant conception of what medical ethics involves. It addresses the fundamental and timely question of the kind of contribution philosophers can make to the discussion of medico-moral issues and the work of health care professionals. It has two main objectives. The first is to establish the futility of bioethics. Anne Maclean challenges the conception of reason in ethics which is integral to the utilitarian tradition and which underlies the whole bioethical enterprise. She argues that the enterprise is philosophically misguided - philosophers do not possess moral expertise and have no special authority to pronounce upon moral issues. In particular, she shows that judgments about the morality of killing cannot be founded on a prior philosophical theory of 'the value of life'.The final chapter demolishes the 'medical model' of illness and health which give exaggerated powers to the doctor, and proposes a role for the philosopher in medical education which deprofessionalises life and death decisions. The second objective is to expose the inadequacy of a utilitarian account of moral reasoning and moral life. The author rejects the utilitarian claim that reason demands the rejection of special obligations; nd argues that the utilitarian drive to reduce rational moral judgment to a single form is ultimately destructive of moral judgment as such. Pure utilitarianism eliminates the essential ingredients of moral thinking.

The Evolution of Morality

The Evolution of Morality PDF Author: Richard Joyce
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262263254
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Moral thinking pervades our practical lives, but where did this way of thinking come from, and what purpose does it serve? Is it to be explained by environmental pressures on our ancestors a million years ago, or is it a cultural invention of more recent origin? In The Evolution of Morality, Richard Joyce takes up these controversial questions, finding that the evidence supports an innate basis to human morality. As a moral philosopher, Joyce is interested in whether any implications follow from this hypothesis. Might the fact that the human brain has been biologically prepared by natural selection to engage in moral judgment serve in some sense to vindicate this way of thinking—staving off the threat of moral skepticism, or even undergirding some version of moral realism? Or if morality has an adaptive explanation in genetic terms—if it is, as Joyce writes, "just something that helped our ancestors make more babies"—might such an explanation actually undermine morality's central role in our lives? He carefully examines both the evolutionary "vindication of morality" and the evolutionary "debunking of morality," considering the skeptical view more seriously than have others who have treated the subject. Interdisciplinary and combining the latest results from the empirical sciences with philosophical discussion, The Evolution of Morality is one of the few books in this area written from the perspective of moral philosophy. Concise and without technical jargon, the arguments are rigorous but accessible to readers from different academic backgrounds. Joyce discusses complex issues in plain language while advocating subtle and sometimes radical views. The Evolution of Morality lays the philosophical foundations for further research into the biological understanding of human morality.

Moral Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Moral Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Britain PDF Author: Colin Heydt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108421091
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
A new account of a vital period in the history of ethics, focusing on the content of morality.

Moral Reason

Moral Reason PDF Author: Julia Markovits
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199567174
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Develops and defends a version of a desire-based, internalist account of what normative reasons are, and counters it with an internalist defense of universal moral reason built on Kant's formula of humanity.

The Value of Life

The Value of Life PDF Author: John Harris
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134954212
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
First published in 1985. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Moral Reasoning in a Pluralistic World

Moral Reasoning in a Pluralistic World PDF Author: Patricia Marino
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773597565
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Moral diversity is a fundamental reality of today’s world, but moral theorists have difficulty responding to it. Some take it as evidence for skepticism – the view that there are no moral truths. Others, associating moral reasoning with the search for overarching principles and unifying values, see it as the result of error. In the former case, moral reasoning is useless, since values express individual preferences; in the latter, our reasoning process is dramatically at odds with our lived experience. Moral Reasoning in a Pluralistic World takes a different approach, proposing an alternative way of thinking about moral reasoning and progress by showing how diversity and disagreement are compatible with theorizing and justification. Patricia Marino demonstrates that, instead of being evidence for skepticism and error, moral disagreements often arise because we value things pluralistically. This means that although people share multiple values such as fairness, honesty, loyalty, and benevolence, we interpret and prioritize those values in various ways. Given this pluralistic evaluation process, preferences for unified single-principle theories are not justified. Focusing on finding moral compromises, prioritizing conflicting values, and judging consistently from one case to another, Marino elaborates her ideas in terms of real-life dilemmas, arguing that the moral complexity and conflict we so often encounter can be part of fruitful and logical moral reflection. Aiming to draw new connections and bridge the gap between theoretical ethics and applied ethics, Moral Reasoning in a Pluralistic World offers a sophisticated set of philosophical arguments on moral reasoning and pluralism with real world applications.

The Expectations of Morality

The Expectations of Morality PDF Author: Gregory Mellema
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9789042017429
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
Moral expectation is a concept with which all of us are well acquainted. Already as children we learn that certain courses of action are expected of us. We are expected to perform certain actions, and we are expected to refrain from other actions. Furthermore, we learn that something is morally wrong with the failure to do what we are morally expected to do. A central theme of this book is that moral expectation should not be confused with moral obligation. While we are morally expected to do everything we are obligated to do, a person can be morally expected to do some things that he or she is not morally obligated to do. Although moral expectation is a familiar notion, it has not been the object of investigation in its own right. In the early chapters Mellema attempts to provide a philosophical account of this familiar notion, distinguish it from other types of expectations, and show how it is possible to form false moral expectations. Subsequent chapters explore the role of moral expectation in agreements between people, analyze ways that people avoid moral expectation, illustrate how groups can have moral expectations, and view moral expectation in the context of our relationship with divine beings. The final chapter provides insight into how moral expectation operates in people's professional lives.

Morality's Progress

Morality's Progress PDF Author: Dale Jamieson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199251452
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
The summation of nearly three decades of work by a leading figure in environmental ethics and bioethics. The 22 papers are invigoratingly diverse, but together tell a unified story about various aspects of the morality of our relationships to animals and to nature.

The End of Morality

The End of Morality PDF Author: Richard Joyce
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351122142
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
According to the moral error theorist, all moral judgments are mistaken. The world just doesn’t contain the properties and relations necessary for these judgments to be true. But what should we actually do if we decided that we are in this radical and unsettling predicament—that morality is just a widespread and heartfelt illusion? One suggestion is to eliminate all talk and thought of morality (abolitionism). Another is to carry on believing it anyway (conservationism). And yet another is to treat morality as a kind of convenient fiction (fictionalism). We tend to think of moral thinking as valuable and useful (e.g., for motivating cooperative behavior), but we can also recognize that it can be harmful (e.g., hindering compromise) and even disastrous (e.g., inspiring support for militaristic propaganda). Would we be better off or worse off if we stopped basing decisions on moral considerations? This is a collection of twelve brand new chapters focused on a critical examination of the options available to the moral error theorist. After a general introduction outlining the topic, explaining key terminology, and offering suggestions for further reading, the chapters address questions like: • Is it true that the more that people are motivated by moral concerns, the more likely it is that society will be elitist, authoritarian, and dishonest? • Is an appeal to moral values a useful tool for helping resolve conflicts, or does it actually exacerbate conflicts? • Would it even be possible to abolish morality from our thinking? • If we were to accept a moral error theory, would it be feasible to carry on believing in morality in everyday contexts? • Might moral discourse be usefully modeled on familiar metaphorical language, where we can convey useful and important truths by uttering falsehoods? • Does moral thinking support or undermine a commitment to feminist goals? • What role do moral judgments play in addressing important decisions affecting climate change? The End of Morality: Taking Moral Abolitionism Seriously is the first book to thoroughly address these and other questions, systematically investigating the harms and benefits of moral thought, and considering what the world might be like without morality.