Moral Theory A Non-Consequentialist Approach

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.

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).

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

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Moral Theory A Non-Consequentialist Approach

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials