This Is Ethical Theory

Almost everyone occasionally remarks that some action is right or wrong, ought or ought not to be done, is a good or bad thing to do—or that someone is a good or bad person, a hero or a creep. We all carry around with us some more or less definite moral beliefs.

But sometimes there is serious disagreement about what actually constitutes right or wrong actions. What really ought to be done? When these disagreements arise, how can they be settled? How do we know who's right?

Professor Narveson distinguishes between a more general subject that may be called ethics and moral theory in particular, the main topic of this book. He gives a clear and precise account of the many explanations of right and wrong recommended by philosophers, covering such points of view as utilitarianism, natural law, egoism, moral relativism, virtue ethics, and religious derivations of ethics, and also explains the metaethical theories such as intuitionism, emotivism, and prescriptivism.

This Is Ethical Theory is both an introduction to ethical theory for those new to the field and a fresh exposition of Narveson's own approach, a form of contractarianism, which he develops after exposing the difficulties that arise with other approaches.