PHIL 329 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Abortion-Rights Movements, Ethical Egoism, Egotism
11 Aug 2016
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Cases will tend to fall into one of three moral categories. Morally right (ex: refraining from stealing a friends" jewellery) Morally wrong (ex: someone who tortures animals) Morally permissible (ex: going for a walk) Ethical theories are similar to scientific theories, they are used to explain ethical actions and morality. Much like scientific theories, if an ethical theory leads us to a wrong conclusion, the theory itself must be wrong. Ethical egoism states that one"s own and only duty is to promote one"s own self interests, without regard to outside factors. Interests are compounded out of convations desires, hopes, wishes etc. Ex: an action is in your interests when the action would better satisfy your desires (taken as a collective) than if the action did not occur. A feature of egoism: egoism is not committed to desiring to always do the right thing. Common sense morality tells us that certain things are wrong (ex: hurting others, lying,
