Rational choice theories assert that human beings behave rationally, either in the narrow sense of rational self-interest, or in the broader sense that decisions are rationally based on preferences. These empirical theories make no direct ethical claims, but they may have relevance to ethics. Social contract theorists have maintained, for example, that rational individuals can assent to a socia...

Both normative theories of ethics in philosophy and contemporary models of moral judgment in psychology have focused almost exclusively on the permissibility of acts, in particular whether acts should be judged on the basis of their material outcomes (consequentialist ethics) or on the basis of rules, duties, and obligations (deontological ethics). However, a longstanding third perspective on m...

A well-known objection to divine will/divine command moral theories is that they commit us to the view that God’s will is arbitrary. I argue that several versions of divine will/divine command moral theories, including two of Robert Adams’s versions of the DCT and my own divine preference theory, can be successfully defended against this objection. I argue that, even if God’s preferences are so...

Prominent evolutionary theories of morality maintain that the adaptations that underlie moral judgment and behavior function, at least in part, to deliver benefits (or prevent harm) to others. These explanations are based on the theories of kin selection and reciprocal altruism, and they predict that moral systems are designed to maximize Hamiltonian inclusive fitness. In sharp contrast, howeve...

In the fall 2009 issue of Teaching Ethics C.E. Harris wrote an article with a question as the title, “Is Moral Theory Useful in Practical Ethics?” which he answered in the affirmative.1 In Harris’ article he considers two moral theories. “For utilitarianism the purpose of morality is to promote human well-being, and moral principles and judgments should be evaluated in terms of their effectiven...

Background: One of the most important issues that requires more attention is the role of philosophy in individual and social life. Although sciences such as psychology and sociology propose their theories based on philosophical foundations, the role of philosophy as a field which can be influential in solving humans’ problems is not paid due attention. One of the sciences where philosophy can h...

24.230 Prof. Khoo Can moral facts be an explanation? An important question that has played a role in the debate between moral naturalism and non-naturalism is whether or not there are any moral explanations of non-moral facts. In this paper, I aim to describe two major positions in the debate and give reasons why I think that, if moral facts exist and are objective, moral explanations are possi...

Present-day legal judgments of psychopathological criminals strongly avoid the exploitation of “moral” considerations. Currently, the attribution of responsibility to criminals often takes advantage of the cognitive concept of mental incapacity so that, in these cases, the moral judgment about moral conducts of “psycho-pathological” criminals is potentially extinguished. We contend that the the...

Implicit theories drastically affect an individual's processing of social information, decision making, and action. The present research focuses on whether individuals who hold the implicit belief that people's moral character is fixed (entity theorists) and individuals who hold the implicit belief that people's moral character is malleable (incremental theorists) make different choices when fa...

Most critics of species egalitarianism point to its counter-intuitive implications in particular cases. But this argumentative strategy is vulnerable to the response that our intuitions should give way in the face of arguments showing that species egalitarianism is required by our deepest, most fundamental moral principles. In this article, I develop an argument against deontological versions o...