Timmons Mark - Moral Theory

Preface

This book is a survey of various moral theories including divine command theory, moral relativism, natural law theory, consequentialism (including classical utilitarianism), ethical egoism, Kants moral theory, moral pluralism, virtue ethics, and moral particularism (though particularism is often considered to be anti-theory). The ten chapters that discuss these theories are preceded by an introduction whose purpose is to expose readers to some basic concepts and ideas common to all or most of the theories featured in the rest of the book. The conclusion ties together certain general themes that emerge from the study of the various theories.

My main goal in writing this book is to provide an intermediate-level introduction to moral theory. I have tried to go beyond many introductory ethics texts by delving into some of the complexity involved in debates within and about moral theories. But I have also tried to refrain from too much complexity, as is evident from the many places throughout the text where I cut off discussion of some issue by leaving it for readers to ponder on their own. This text, then, is written for those individuals who are ready for something more challenging than an elementary treatment of the questions and issues that come up in moral theory but who are not yet ready to tackle advanced research in ethics.

Here is whats new in the second edition:

• In the decade since the first edition was published, there has been a flourish of work in moral psychology. So I have tried to bring some of this work, as well as work from the sciences generally, to bear on the moral theories discussed in this book. Relatedly, in the Further Readings recommendations following the chapters on the various types of moral theory (chapters 211), I have divided the recommendations into philosophical literature and empirical literature.
• I have added a chapter on ethical egoism, which includes a discussion of psychological egoism and some of the experimental work that addresses this type of egoism.
• The chapters on divine command theory and moral relativism have been expanded to include some discussion of what I call restricted versions of these theories. These versions are more plausible than their unrestricted counterparts, and so this second edition provides a more balanced discussion of these types of moral theory.
• The previous edition included two chapters on utilitarianism, a species of a much broader category of moral theory, consequentialism. In revising the first edition chapters I have tried to broaden my presentation somewhat to indicate more clearly the breadth of consequentialist approaches in normative moral theory. To reflect this change, I have re-titled the chapters as: Consequentialism 1: Classical Utilitarianism and Consequentialism 2: Contemporary Developments .
• I have made very substantial changes to the chapter on moral particularism in light of work in the past decade. It is probably closer to the truth to say that I wrote a new chapter on this topic.
• Throughout the text I have made various revisions for purposes of greater clarity, based partly on my experiences in using the previous edition in courses.

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank my editor, Jonathan Sisk, for his encouragement and patience. I benefited from comments (sometimes written, sometimes verbal) by Michael Gill, Michael Gorr, Terry Horgan, Elinor Mason, Christian Miller, Cole Mitchell, Susana Nuccetelli, Sarah Raskoff, Dave Shoemaker, Houston Smit, and Betsy Timmons. Thanks to Michael Bukoski, who wrote an excellent set of comments on the penultimate version of the entire manuscript, prompting a number of improvements. I am especially grateful to Doug Portmore, who generously offered to comment on chapters in this new edition as they were being revised. I took advantage of Dougs offer in revising chapters 14 and in drafting the new chapter on ethical egoism. The comments and suggestions I received from Michael and Doug were extremely helpful in making this second edition of the book an improvement over the first, though I was not able to fully address all of their excellent comments and suggestions.

An Introduction to Moral Theory

Moral theory is the study of substantive moral conceptions, that is, the study of how the basic notions of the right, the good, and moral worth may be arranged to form different moral structures.

John Rawls (1975)

What makes an act right or wrong? What makes an individual morally good or bad? How can we come to correct conclusions about what we morally ought to do and what sorts of persons we ought to be? Moral theory attempts to provide systematic answers to these very general moral questions about what to do and how to be. Because moral theorists have given different answers to these questions, we find a variety of competing moral theories. This book contains a survey of some of the most important moral theoriestheories that are of both historical and contemporary interest.