PHL275H1 Lecture Notes - The White People, Normative Ethics
Document Summary
The iraq war was wrong, the death penalty is morally right. We could stick with these particular moral judgments, but we have a natural impulse is to ask if some act is right and if there is an explanation of why it is right. Euthyphro-socrates is not satisfied with the list of pious acts, but wants a general theory of what makes pious acts pious. Main debates in normative ethics are between rival moral theories. Simplest theory of what is right and wrong:utilitarianism. It has just one principle, mill calls it the principle of greatest happiness. Actions are right as long as they produce pleasure. Aiming to get the greatest happiness of the greatest number, greatest overall surplus of happiness for everyone effected over unhappiness in the world. Utilitarianism takes a common moral idea, states it more clearly and makes it into the one supreme moral principle.
