Practical Ignorance in Moral Actions

A Study of Kaykhosrow\'s Moral and Practical Actions in the War with the Turanians

Background: Kaykhosrow is one of the prominent kings in Shahnameh who, after coming to power, has taken favorable measures for the growth and excellence of Iranian society. One of his challenges in governing the country was the border conflicts by the Turanians, which caused many problems. However, in dealing with the main enemies of the Iranians, Kaykhosrow has not always been alienated from m...

Moral Intuition, Moral Theory, and Practical Ethics

Practical Reasons and Moral ‘Ought’

Morality is a source of reasons for action, what philosophers call practical reasons. Kantians say that it ‘gives’ reasons to everyone. We can even think of moral requirements as amounting to particularly strong or stringent reasons, in an effort to demystify deontological views like Kant’s, with its insistence on inescapable or ‘binding’ moral requirements or ‘oughts.’1 When we say that someon...

Moral pedagogy and practical ethics.

Online science and engineering ethics (SEE) education can support appropriate goals for SEE and the highly interactive pedagogy that attains those goals. Recent work in moral psychology suggests pedagogical goals for SEE education that are surprisingly similar to goals enunciated by several panels in SEE. Classroom-based interactive study of SEE cases is a suitable method to achieve these goals...

Is Moral Theory Useful in Practical Ethics?

Many applied or practical ethicists hold that ethical theories have little value in practical ethics. The theories such critics have in mind are probably most often utilitarianism and a Kantian ethics of respect for persons, which I shall refer to as RP theory. This criticism applies to both practical ethics done in the classroom and in other venues, such as professional publication. The critic...