Moral Doctrines

and Moral
Vice and Virtue in Everyday
Life
Theories
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
Gods Commands,
Mortimer
The

Divine Command Theory of

Ethics: Gods 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.
Arthurs rejection of these 2 claims

Why Morality Does

Not Depend on
Religion
The Euthyphro Dilemma
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

Guines description of the happiness

of the many in Omelas
Le Guines 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
Mills

Principle of Utility
Mills 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 dutys sake.

Kant contd.
Kants

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.
Kants theory is divorced from
concrete human nature and
experience.
We must find moral answers that
work.