Subjective Morals

by Steve F. Sapontzis

Overview

Is morality a good thing? Is moral relativism a bad thing? Traditionally, moral philosophers have presumed that the answers to both questions must be yes. In today’s world, however, many moralists feel obligated to ban gay marriage or censor whatever they deem offensive, and others feel morality commands them to bomb abortion clinics and fly planes into buildings. Unfortunately, it has become all too common for such true believers to use moral values to justify their often destructive behavior. Today’s moral zealotry leaves the value of morality questionable and makes traditional moral philosophy feel pale and irrelevant. Subjective Morals breaks with tradition to provide a careful analysis of moral values and the goods and evils they produce. This work explores the subjective and objective bases of moral values and details the kinds of truth and justification of which they are and are not capable. After analyzing the concepts and categories that structure our moral practice, Sapontzis concludes with recommendations for how we may enjoy the benefits of moral values while minimizing their evils.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761856856
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/17/2011
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Steve F. Sapontzis is emeritus professor of philosophy at California State University, East Bay. He is the author of Morals, Reason, and Animals and numerous scholarly articles and the editor of Food for Thought: The Debate over Eating Meat.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: Starting with the Eye of the Beholder
1. No value without feeling
2. The primary argument
3. Three supporting arguments
4. Answering six common objections
5. Plato’s rejection of subjective morals

Chapter Two: Axiology, More Complicated Than It Looks
1. Categorizing values
2. Derivative value
3. Direct value
4. Immediate value
5. Summary of categories
6. Imperatives and priorities
7. Answering Plato’s cart-before-the-horse objection

Chapter Three: Varieties of Truth and Justification
1. Objectivity or bust
2. Circumstantial and contextual truth
3. Historical truth
4. Varieties of justification
5. Context-based justification
6. Summary

Chapter Four: A Phenomenology of Moral Values
1. Methodology
2. Origin
3. Subject matter
4. Functions
5. Concern
6. Priority
7. Extension: Impersonality, impartiality, inescapability, common sensicality, diversity
8. Summary and coordination

Chapter Five: Moral Relativism
1. Cultural relativism
2. The compulsion for moral values to be objective
3. Why should I be moral?

Chapter Six: The Right and the not so Good
1. Evaluating morality
2. The brighter side of morality: social coexistence
3. The brighter side: “true happiness”
4. The brighter side: nonhuman welfare
5. The darker side of morality: happiness
6. The darker side: liberty
7. The darker side: punishment, exploitation, intolerance, and zealotry
8. Circularity
9. An eye for an eye
10. Heat versus light

Chapter Seven: Inferences, Observations, and Speculations
1. Empathy, respect, and negative functioning
2. Moral persuasion
3. Religious morality
4. Recommendations