Normative Ethical Theory

Description

This course is a study of the main contending contemporary views about goodness and virtue, principles of moral evaluation, and moral decision-making. These include deontological, consequentialist, and contemporary virtuebased and contractarian theories. Emphasis will be placed on securing a thorough understanding the arguments used to derive fundamental moral principles and to justify claims about our moral obligations. Such study aims to reveal the kinds of issues that are involved in analyzing what constitutes rational considerations for moral action, and the strengths and weaknesses of the rival theories.