Moral Theory A Non-Consequentialist Approach

by Oderberg, David S.

• ISBN13: 9780631219033
• ISBN10: 063121903X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-05-18
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Moral Theory sets out the basic system used to solve moral problems, the system that consequentialists deride as 'traditional morality'. The central concepts, principles and distinctions of traditional morality are explained and defended: rights; justice; the good; virtue; the intention/foresight distinction; the acts/omissions distinction; and, centrally, the fundamental value of human life.

Author Biography

David S. Oderberg is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Reading. A graduate of the Universities of Melbourne and Oxford, he is author of The Metaphysics of Identity over Time (1993); co-editor, with Jacqueline A. Laing, of Human Lives: Critical Essays on Consequentialist Bioethics (1997), and editor of Form and Matter: Themes in Contemporary Metaphysics (Blackwell, 1999).

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements	vii
Ethics, Knowledge and Action	1	(33)
Introduction	1	(2)
Ethics and Knowledge	3	(24)
The fact--value distinction	9	(7)
Relativism	16	(7)
Prescriptivism and expressivism	23	(4)
Ethics and Action	27	(7)
Basic Concepts in Moral Theory I	34	(52)
Introduction	34	(1)
The Good	34	(11)
Virtue	45	(8)
Rights and Duties	53	(10)
Rights and Contracts	63	(2)
Rights and Consequentialism	65	(11)
Collision of Rights	76	(10)
Basic Concepts in Moral Theory II	86	(52)
Intention and Foresight	86	(41)
Good, evil and the will	86	(2)
The Principle of Double Effect	88	(8)
Criticisms of PDE and replies	96	(31)
Acts and Omissions	127	(11)
Another derided distinction	127	(1)
Initial clarification of AOD	128	(2)
The derided distinction defended	130	(8)
Close-Up on the Good of Life	138	(47)
Life as a Good	138	(5)
The Right to Life and the Sanctity of Life	143	(4)
The Sanctity of Life and its Critics	147	(27)
Innocence	147	(4)
A life not worth living?	151	(23)
Persons and Human Beings	174	(11)
Notes and Further Reading	185	(7)
Index	192