Chapter 4: How Can I Know What Is Right?

I. Introduction A. Ethical skeptics – doubt whether there is such a thing as moral truth B. Ethical relativists – deny that there are any universally valid moral principles C. Ethical absolutists – claim there are moral absolutes D. Teleological ethical theories – consequences determine the rightness of an action E. Deontological ethical theories – advocate doing what is good regardless of the consequences F. Virtue ethics theories – emphasis one’s character rather than one’s actions II. Kant and the Categorical Imperative G. Introduction 1. Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) 2. Kant published The Critique of Pure Reason, which revolutionized western philosophy H. Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant 3. The good will is the only thing that can be conceived as good without qualification 4. Action of duty has moral worth not through the purpose to be attained, but through the principle of volition irrespective of desire 5. Duty is the necessity to act out of reverence for the law 6. The categorical imperative: “I ought never to act except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law” III. Utilitarianism I. Introduction 7. Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832) proposed the ethical theory of utilitarianism 8. Utilitarianism – teleological theory that what makes an action right is its consequences 9. John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873) suggested “the greatest happiness for the greatest number” 10. Hedonism – the highest good is pleasure J. Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill 11. Actions are right in proportion to their promotion of happiness and wrong as they tend to produce pain 12. The