Philosophy 2700F/G Chapter Notes -Consequentialism, Hypothetical Imperative, Deontological Ethics
16 Jun 2012
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The fundamental philosophical issues must be addressed a priori, that is, without drawing on observations of human beings and their behavior. The following are three considerations favoring a priori methods that he emphasizes repeatedly. The first is that, as kant and others have conceived of it, ethics initially requires an analysis of our moral concepts. We must understand the concepts of a good will , obligation , duty and so on, as well as their logical relationships to one another, before we can determine whether our use of these concepts is justified. Given that the analysis of concepts is an a priori matter, to the degree that ethics consists of such an analysis, ethics is a priori as a well. The ultimate subject matter of ethics is the nature and content of the principles that necessarily determine a rational will.
