PHI 1102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Relativism, Categorical Imperative, Empiricism
27 Mar 2017
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Two extreme positions in ethics: relativism, any perspective can be morally accepted, all moral truths are contingent, moral absolutism, there can only be one possible answer, necessary. Try to find the mean between the two extremes (possibly towards the side of moral absolutism) People tend to be inconsistent in their own principles. Virtue of man would be to reason well. A state of character conserved with choice lying in a mean (relative to us) being determined by a rational principle. Virtue is a character of the soul. Sometimes be necessary to impose paternalistic laws (rules that others are incompetent to make) get citizens to act in a specific (hopefully more virtuously) 3 kinds of laws: eternal, natural, positive (human: each are some reflection of another. Laws are command and command comes from reason. Distinguish between principle and application of principle. Rational creatures would receive a different kind of rights compared. Morality is merely an issue of sensing.
