Categorical imperative

“I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.” - Albert Einstein. Making ethical choices should just be common sense within society. We expect everybody to do the right thing, we want everybody to do the right thing. But what happens when one does something unethical? What happens to them? What happens to the people around them? It never turns out well, they end up destroying everything around…

Within this essay I will be discussing one of the variations of Jeremy Bentham’s moral theory of Utilitarianism, Act Utilitarianism. I will be presenting the objection to Bentham’s theory that, utilitarianism, ignores the motive and means of an action and chooses to focus solely on the consequences. I will argue that a being’s means of undertaking such action is just as important in determining morality as the consequences. I will also argue that this objection is sufficient in undermining the…

Introduction In “Ethical Decision-Making: The Doctrine of Sin and Grace,” Giles attempts to examine the subject of ethical decision-making based on the bounds of freedom of the will. According to Giles, the reformed view and the wider Christian tradition supports that the will is inhibited by the result of humanity’s sin. The author examines freedom or the lack of freedom in regards to the will of man. Although I agree with the flow and result of the summary of research in this article, this…

Immanuel Kant was prevalent philosopher who focused on the morality in his 18th century work “Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals.” Here, he separates the branches of knowledge, what is inherently good, and the imperatives to guide morality. The first major premise of his Kant’s view of morality is his division thesis; it separates ethics into two groups: rational and empirical. The rational side, marked by its sole use of reasoning and logic is called morals. In contrast, the empirical…

Logical behaviorism is a view that investigates mental states in the light of behavioral dispositions. According to behaviorists, to be in a certain mental state is equal to behave in a certain way. State- behavior relationship is not just correlation it is an equivalence. Putnam is one of the philosophers who has dissidence about this point of view. In this essay, I will talk about Putnam’s arguments against logical behaviorism with his statement “Causes are not logical constructions out of…

Teleological Ethics and Pornography Teleological Ethics is the ethics of ambition, good or ends. This approach is concerned with questions regarding the highest good or final goal of life towards which persons should aim. It holds that there are certain goods or ends which are worthy of complete commitment and it seeks to throw light upon what these are, for example, the ‘Kingdom of God’, a classless society, or constitutional objectives of building a democratic state. This ethics raises the…

Neo-classical Theory The neo-classical approach developed as a reaction to the classical principle, but it did not abandon them altogether. It pointed out the limitations of the classical approach and tried to remove the deficiencies through highlighting certain things which were not considered by the classical writers. That is why, it is classical theory. The classical organisational functioning in order to increase the efficiency and productivity. But positive aspects of these variable could…

In Chapter 2 of “Utilitarianism,” John Stuart Mill argues for Utilitarianism as a moral theory by considering several objections and addressing misconceptions. His definition of Utilitarianism relates to Theory of Right Action and Theory of the Good. The Theory of Right Action is connected to Consequentialism. The Theory of Right Action states that only the outcomes, or consequences, of an action determine how right the action is. Intentions are irrelevant. An action is right in proportion to…

A major element discussed throughout moral philosophy is emotion. The Stoics and Augustine have similar views, but both have distinctive characteristics about their view that is different from the other view. The Stoics are very one sided and disregard any type of emotion. While Augustine feels this is sometimes the case, he also feels that emotions are necessary to help guide a person to what is good. Likewise, both views incorporate God and relate Him to emotions, or lack thereof. I accept…

Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher wrote a book called Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals that says you must live your life by abiding to a moral code, a duty that applies to every human being. Meaning that everything you do must align with what the rest of the universe would do in that same situation. That you would never be able to be rewarded for anything you do, but that what you do is to be done out of the pure goodness in your heart. That “it is not necessary that whilst [you] live…