Moral Doctrines and Moral Theories Vice and Virtue

Moral Doctrines and Moral Theories Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life Chapter 4

The Experience Machine, Nozick ► What matters to us, apart from having pleasant conscious experiences? ► First, we want to actually do certain things. ► Second, we want to be a certain kind of people.

The Experience Machine, Nozick ► Third, we do not want to be limited to a man-made reality.

The Judeo-Christian Tradition ► Genesis: Creation and Fall ► Exodus: The 10 Commandments and other moral prescriptions for Israel ► Psalms: Happiness in knowing and following God

The Judeo-Christian Tradition ► The Sermon on the Mount: Human fulfillment through an inner moral and spiritual transformation

Morality is Based on God’s Commands, Mortimer ► The Divine Command Theory of Ethics: God’s will determines what is right and what is wrong. ► The ethical person is both merciful and just.

Why Morality Does Not Depend on Religion, Arthur ► The Nature of Morality ► The Nature of Religion ► What is the connection between morality and religion?

Why Morality Does Not Depend on Religion ► Religion might motivate moral behavior. ► Perhaps God provides us with moral knowledge. ► Arthur’s rejection of these 2 claims

Why Morality Does Not Depend on Religion ► The Euthyphro Dilemma

Of Benevolence, Hume ► Hume believes that all knowledge is based on experience. ► Morality is grounded in our human sentiments. ► Benevolence is the key moral sentiment.

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, Le Guine ► Le Guine’s description of the happiness of the many in Omelas ► Le Guine’s description of the misery of the one child

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas ► Why do some people walk away from Omelas? ► What implications does this have for the credibility of utilitarianism?

Utilitarianism, Mill ► Mill’s Principle of Utility ► Mill’s Definition of Happiness ► There is a difference between the higher and lower pleasures. ► How do we discover which pleasures are better?

A Critique of Utilitarianism, Williams ► Utilitarianism sometimes might require us to do the wrong thing. ► The case of George ► The case of Jim and Pedro

A Critique of Utilitarianism ► Integrity and the value of our deeply held projects pose problems for utilitarianism.

Good Will, Duty, and the Categorical Imperative, Kant ► Kant believes that only a good will is unconditionally good. ► The person of good will does her duty for duty’s sake.

Kant cont’d. ► Kant’s analysis of the moral worth of actions: impulse, reason, and duty. ► Hypothetical and Categorical Imperatives ► The Categorical Imperative: act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

The Holocaust and Moral Philosophy, Sommers ► Introduction: religion, morality, and the Holocaust ► Doing wrong vs. wrongdoing ► The rationalist approach to morality, e. g. Kant

The Holocaust and Moral Philosophy ► The sentimentalist approach to morality, e. g. Hume ► Moral philosophy should prohibit cruelty to sentient non-persons.

A Critique of Kantianism, Taylor ► The problem with many moral philosophers is their lack of appreciation for the pain and sorrow that exist in the world. ► Such moralists focus on solving abstract philosophical problems.

A Critique of Kantianism ► Kant failed to realize that there may be no true morality. ► Kant’s theory is divorced from concrete human nature and experience. ► We must find moral answers that work.