Common Morality
Deciding What to Do
1st Edition
Published on 19. August 2004
202 pages
978-0-19-803872-6 (ISBN)
Description
Distinguished philosopher Bernard Gert presents a clear and concise introduction to what he calls "common morality"--the moral system that most thoughtful people implicitly use when making everyday, common sense moral decisions and judgments. Common Morality is useful in that--while not resolving every disagreement on controversial issues--it is able to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable answers to moral problems.
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Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Introduction
- Some Areas of Widespread Agreement
- Distinguishing Features of Moral Judgments
- Rationality and Human Nature
- Areas of Moral Disagreement
- Analogy between Morality and Grammar
- Part I: The Moral System
- Features of the Moral System
- The Moral Rules
- The Moral Ideals
- General Characteristics of Moral Rules
- To whom do the rules apply?
- Whom do the moral rules protect?
- Interpreting the Rules
- 1. "Do not kill.
- 2. "Do not cause pain.
- 3. "Do not disable.
- 4. "Do not deprive of freedom.
- 5. "Do not deprive of pleasure.
- Summary of the first five rules
- 6. "Do not deceive.
- 7. "Keep your promises.
- 8. "Do not cheat.
- 9. "Obey the law.
- 10. "Do your duty.
- Violations of Moral Rules Involve Liability to Punishment
- Justifying Violations of the Moral Rules
- The Two-Step Procedure for Justifying Violations of the Moral Rules
- The first step: Using the morally relevant features to describe the act
- The second step: Estimating the consequences of everyone knowing that a kind of violation is allowed and that it is not allowed
- Moral Virtues and Vices
- Summary and Test
- Part II: The Moral Theory
- The Justification of Morality
- Characteristics of Moral Agents
- Knowledge or Beliefs Required of All Moral Agents
- Irrationality and Rationality
- Rationality as Maximizing Satisfaction of Desires
- Objectively Irrational Actions
- Personally Irrational Actions
- Reasons versus Motives
- All Reasons Have Justifying Force
- Reasons and Desires
- Adequate Reasons
- Rationality, Morality, and Self-Interest
- Impartiality
- Two Philosophical Attempts to Achieve Moral Impartiality
- Justifying Moral Impartiality
- Why morality requires impartiality with respect to the moral rules
- The group with regard to which morality requires impartiality
- Why Act Morally?
- Morality as an Informal Public System
- The Role of Governments in Settling Unresolvable Moral Disagreements
- Rights
- The Consequences of Morality Not Always Providing a Unique Correct Answer
- A Complete Moral Theory
- Conclusion
- Flow Charts
- Rationality
- Morality
- Notes
- Index
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- Y
