Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
6-2022
Abstract
What are the fundamental divisions in ethics? Which divisions capture the most important and basic options in moral theorizing? In this article, I reject the ‘Textbook View’ which takes the tripartite division between consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics to be fundamental. Instead, I suggest that moral theories are fundamentally divided into three independent divisions, which I call the neutral/relative division, the normative priority division, and the maximizing division. I argue that this account of the fundamental divisions of ethics better captures the main concerns that normative ethicists have when assessing moral theories. It also helps us make progress in comparative ethics and makes visible theoretical possibilities obscured by the Textbook View.
Keywords
consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, normative ethics, comparative philosophy
Discipline
Ethics and Political Philosophy
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Inquiry
First Page
1
Last Page
25
ISSN
0020-174X
Identifier
10.1080/0020174X.2022.2092906
Publisher
Routledge
Citation
HAMMERTON, Matthew.(2022). The fundamental divisions in ethics. Inquiry, , 1-25.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3617
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2022.2092906