Influentialism

2019 ◽  
pp. 216-224
Author(s):  
Richard Corry
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Causal Influence ◽  
Normative Ethical Theory ◽  
Power And Influence

This final chapter puts the ontology of power and influence to use beyond metaphysics by suggesting that the concept of causal influence may be helpful in the field of normative ethics. In particular, it is argued that the ontology of causal influence opens up the possibility of a novel category of normative ethical theory called influentialism. Influentialism stands in contrast to the traditional categories of consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics. The aim is not to argue that influentialism is preferable to these traditional categories, but simply to put the theory on the table for consideration. However, it is argued that influentialism has some promising features that make it worthy of consideration. In particular, influentialism seems to occupy a middle ground between consequentialism and deontology and is able to combine seemingly incompatible intuitions from these two categories.

Guilt, Shame, and Satisfaction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleonore Stump
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
Normative Ethical Theory

The project of this book requires the ethics and value theory presupposed in Christian theology, and for purposes of the book the author takes the ethics and value theory of Aquinas as exemplary. It is an ethics that accepts an objective goodness which is tied to the nature of God and which is founded on a correlation of being and goodness. In its normative ethics, it is built around the virtues; but it is a non-Aristotelian virtue ethics, and it privileges relationship and the second-personal among the things it values most. Its most central virtue is love, and all the rest of its normative ethical theory rests on this virtue. This chapter contains an account of love, and it explains guilt and shame in terms of that account of love. It also considers the remedies for guilt and shame, including forgiveness, satisfaction or penance, and the remaining stain on the soul.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Christine Swanton
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Thick Concept ◽  
Normative Ethical Theory

The Introduction summarizes the basic tenets of Target Centred Virtue Ethics. It begins with an account of the fundamental concepts of virtue ethics in general and shows that virtue ethics is a family of normative ethical theory with several genera and species. The target-centred version of virtue ethics developed in the book is one species of virtue ethics opposed to the orthodox neo-Aristotelian version in many respects. Central to all forms of virtue ethics is ‘Thick Concept Centralism’, and the ‘Centrality of Virtuousness’, whether the notion of virtuousness is applied to character, actions, rules or motives. The Introduction outlines these theses, and the notion of the targets of virtues, before summarizing the contents of the book, including the metaphysics of Target Centred Virtue Ethics, the nature of Target Centred Virtue Ethics, and broad issues surrounding the application of Target Centred Virtue Ethics.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Timmons
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
New Work ◽  
Moral Choice ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Desire Satisfaction ◽  
Choice Under Uncertainty ◽  
Normative Ethical Theory

Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics brings together new work on various dimensions of normative ethical theory. This seventh volume features thirteen chapters dealing with practical reasoning, Bernard Williams’s ‘one thought too many’ complaint about impartial ethical theories, the concept of moral right, the wrongness of lying, moral choice under uncertainty, the notion of subjective obligation, commendatory reasons, desire satisfaction and time, a challenge to contractualism, the nature of creditworthiness, partiality toward oneself, the relation between virtue and action, and monism versus pluralism about non-derivative value....

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Timmons
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
New Work ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Right Action ◽  
Evaluative Beliefs ◽  
Moral Advice ◽  
Normative Ethical Theory

Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics features new work in the field of normative ethical theory. This eighth volume features chapters which collectively address the following topics: the irreplaceable value of human beings, interpersonal morality and conceptions of welfare, what it is for something to be good for an animal (including humans), the relation between good will and right action, moral advice and joint agency, moral responsibility and wrongdoing, the basis of equality, the role of needs claims in ethical theory, threshold conceptions of deontology, prudential reasons, the significance of evaluative beliefs, and Stoic conceptions of insults....

scholarly journals The Functional Model of Analysis as Middle Ground Meta-Ethics

Diametros ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Saja
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Functional Model ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Ethical Question ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Moral World ◽  
Hybrid Function ◽  
Normative Ethical Theory ◽  
New Framework

The main purpose of the paper is to present a new framework of meta-ethics which I call the Functional Model of Analysis. It presupposes that the most important meta-ethical question is not “What is the meaning of normative words, sentences and what is the ontological fabric of the moral world?” but “What should morality and ethics be for?”. It is a form of meta-ethics that focuses on finding theoretical resources that can be helpful in understanding ongoing ethical debates between disciples of Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics, Augustine, Hobbes, utilitarians and Kant, and in building normative ethical theories that can help us to answer normative questions. As an example of such output I will present a formal sketch of Hybrid Function Consequentialism – a normative ethical theory based upon the meta-ethical framework proposed here.

Freedom and Morality

2019 ◽  
pp. 97-139
Author(s):  
Sandra Shapshay
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Hard Determinism ◽  
Freedom Of The Will ◽  
The World ◽  
The Will ◽  
Normative Ethical Theory

Most contemporary ethical theorists do not look to Schopenhauer as a resource for contemporary normative ethics. Chapters 1 and 2 dispel one of the main reasons for this—namely, that Schopenhauer’s pessimism leads only to the recommendation of resignation. But there is another reason why Schopenhauer has been neglected as an ethical theorist that this chapter addresses. It is widely held that Schopenhauer espouses hard determinism, the view that human beings (in addition to non-human animals) are determined to act as they do on the basis of physical and psychological laws. Yet, without the presumption of freedom it makes little sense to offer a normative ethical theory. Accordingly, before reconstructing Schopenhauer’s normative ethical theory, one needs to get clearer on his views on freedom. This chapter begins with Schopenhauer’s grappling with the problem of how freedom is possible in his dissertation (1813) and traces the development of his theory of freedom through The World as Will and Representation (1818) and his essay “On the Freedom of the Will” (1839). Next, it offers an interpretation of Schopenhauer’s mature compatibilist view that shows how it aims to depart from, but remains highly indebted to Kant’s theory of freedom. This under-acknowledged debt is the “ghost of Kantian freedom” in Schopenhauer’s thought. Ultimately, for Schopenhauer, though we are each born with an innate character and are shaped largely by our empirical circumstances, a rational being is nonetheless responsible for her character, which she can shape and even, albeit rarely, transform.

The Limits of Virtue Ethics

2020 ◽  
pp. 255-282
Author(s):  
Travis Timmerman ◽  
Yishai Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
The Right ◽  
Ethical View ◽  
Normative Ethical Theory

Virtue ethics is often understood as a rival to existing consequentialist, deontological, and contractualist views. But some have disputed the position that virtue ethics is a genuine normative ethical rival. This chapter aims to crystallize the nature of this dispute by providing criteria that determine the degree to which a normative ethical theory is complete, and then investigating virtue ethics through the lens of these criteria. In doing so, it’s argued that no existing account of virtue ethics is a complete normative ethical view that rivals existing consequentialist, deontological, and contractualist views. Moreover, it is argued that one of the most significant challenges facing virtue ethics consists in offering an account of the right-making features of actions, while remaining a distinctively virtue ethical view.

Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics, Vol 7

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
Annual Basis ◽  
Instrumental Reasoning ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Contemporary Work ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Normative Ethical Theory

This series aims to provide, on an annual basis, some of the best contemporary work in the field of normative ethical theory. Each volume features new chapters that contribute to an understanding of a wide range of issues and positions in normative ethical theory, and represents a sampling of recent developments in this field. This seventh volume brings together thirteen new essays that collectively cover a range of fundamental topics in the field, including: instrumental reasoning; lying as infidelity; moral uncertaintism; subjective obligation; commendatory reasons; contractualism; and the definition of virtue.

Power and Influence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Corry
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
World View ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Ontological Category ◽  
Causal Influence ◽  
The World ◽  
Species Population ◽  
Power And Influence

This book investigates the metaphysical presuppositions of a common—and very successful—reductive approach to dealing with the complexity of the world. The reductive approach in question is one in which we study the components of a complex system in relative isolation, and use the information so gained to explain or predict the behaviour of the complex whole. So, for example, ecologists explain shifts in species population in terms of interactions between individuals, geneticists explain traits of an organism in terms of interactions between genes, and physicists explain the properties of a gas in terms of collisions between the particles that make up the gas. It is argued that this reductive method makes substantive metaphysical assumptions about the world. In particular, the method assumes the existence of causal powers that manifest ‘causal influence’—a relatively unrecognized ontological category of which forces are a paradigm example. The success of the reductive method, therefore, is an argument for the existence of such causal influence. The book goes on to show that adding causal influence to our ontology gives us the resources to solve some traditional problems in the metaphysics of powers, causation, emergence, laws of nature, and possibly even normative ethics. What results, then, is not just an understanding of the reductive method, but an integrated metaphysical world view that is grounded in a novel ontology of power and influence.

Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics Volume 9

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
Annual Basis ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Moral Duties ◽  
Contemporary Work ◽  
Normative Ethical Theory

This series aims to provide, on an annual basis, some of the best contemporary work in the field of normative ethical theory. Each volume features new chapters that contribute to an understanding of a wide range of issues and positions in normative ethical theory, and represents a sampling of recent developments in this field. This ninth volume brings together thirteen new essays that collectively cover a range of fundamental topics in the field, including: discretionary moral duties, third‐party forgiveness, subjective permissibility, agent‐relative prerogatives, and teleosemantics

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