Moral Choices Quotes

“Virtue theory is an ethic of character, not duty. These emphases are certainly consistent with the biblical emphasis on becoming more like Christ in character.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Virtue theory, which is also called aretaic ethics (from the Greek term arete, “virtue”), holds that morality is more than simply doing the right thing. The foundational moral claims made by the virtue theorist concern the moral agent (the person doing the action), not the act that the agent performs.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“A final objection to relativism is the charge that its central premise, namely that moral absolutes do not exist, is a self-defeating statement, since the premise itself is an absolute.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“A sixth weakness of relativism is that it allows no room for moral reformers or prophets.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“The fifth and most serious charge against relativism is an extension of the fourth weakness. The relativist cannot morally evaluate any clearly oppressive culture or, more specifically, any obvious tyrant.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“A fourth weakness of relativism is that it provides no way to arbitrate among competing cultural value claims.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Just because different cultures have different moral standards, even if the degree of moral diversity is not overstated, it does not follow that there is no such thing as absolute values that transcend culture.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“A third weakness of relativism is that cultural relativism as a normative system cannot be drawn from the observations of the cultural relativist.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“A second weakness of relativism is related to the first. Many of the observations of moral diversity were differences in moral practices.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn has noted the following: Every culture has a concept of murder, distinguishing this from execution, killing in war and other justifiable homicides. The notions of incest and other regulations upon sexual behavior, the prohibitions on untruth under defined circumstances, of restitution and reciprocity, of mutual obligations between parents and children—these and many other moral concepts are altogether universal.17”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“First, in terms of the observations of the cultural anthropologists who developed relativism, the degree of moral diversity is overstated and the high degree of moral consensus is understated.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Two primary criticisms have been raised of postmodernism.16 The first is to insist that just because one sees the world through a particular set of lenses (or biases), it does not mean that he or she is incapable of rationality or objectivity. It may make being rational and objective more difficult, but it does not make it impossible.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Postmodernism insists that all knowledge is received through one’s cultural lenses. As a result, it is impossible to have an objective view of truth. And since there can be no such thing as objective truth, making any kind of claim for similarly objective and universal moral norms is considered futile by the postmodernists. It would be difficult to overestimate the impact of postmodern thinking on the resurgence of relativism in the culture today.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“It is better to see morality on a continuum, with absolutism at one extreme and relativism at the other. One can hold to objective moral principles and not be a complete absolutist, that is, one can be what is called a “prima facie” absolutist, literally, “at first appearance.” While recognizing the importance of unchanging, objective, moral principles, the prima facie absolutist allows for periodic exceptions to general principles. On selected issues, most people who hold to the importance of principles would admit exceptions.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“A second appeal of relativism comes from the way it is presented. Frequently relativism is presented as though it and its opposite, absolutism, are the only two valid alternatives.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Despite its philosophical shortcomings, ethical relativism does have appeal, particularly to the popular culture. The first appeal of relativism is based on the important idea that morality does not develop in a sociological vacuum.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“A third form of relativism smuggled into the popular culture is called situation ethics. Popularized by Joseph Fletcher in the 1960s and 1970s, situation ethics holds that all morality is relative to the situation in which one finds oneself, and one’s moral obligation is to do the loving thing in that situation.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“A second form of relativism practiced today is moral subjectivism, which says that morality is determined by the individual’s own tastes and preferences.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Cultural relativism is sometimes referred to as conventionalism, which maintains that cultural acceptance determines the validity of moral norms. While morality may need cultural acceptance to function properly, it is quite another thing to insist that cultural acceptance determines the validity of its values. In practice little difference exists between cultural relativism and conventionalism. In both instances the culture determines the morality, and the standards of that culture are considered normative for that culture without being universal.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“It should not be surprising that ethical statements are not empirically verifiable, since right and wrong are not empirically observable qualities. But neither are they simply emotive expressions.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Good reasons usually resolve moral disagreements, but for the emotivist, giving good reasons and using manipulation would essentially be the same thing.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Third, emotivism cannot account for the place of reason in ethics. Emotivism sets up a false dichotomy, as the following demonstrates: (a) Either there are moral facts like there are scientific facts, or (b) values are nothing more than expressions of our subjective feelings. But there is another possibility; namely, moral truths are truths of reason, or a moral judgment is true if it is supported by better reasons than the alternatives.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Second, emotivism is actually a theory of the use of moral language, not of its meaning.13 The emotivist has jumped from a theory of use to a theory of meaning without any justification for that leap.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Emotivism maintains that the only statements capable of having meaning are those that are empirically verifiable, but this underlying principle is itself not empirically verifiable.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Emotivism does give us something positive, a reminder that moral language is emotionally charged and can be used improperly to manipulate people under the guise of getting them to do the right thing. Unfortunately, because moral language is so emotionally charged, people often dismiss it today as too divisive or incapable of verification.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“Reducing morality to matters of opinion or feeling is at the heart of Hume’s project. The reason his theory is important is that it is widely followed today. Morality is becoming increasingly subjective and is losing its propositional nature as people in our culture insist that judgments of right and wrong are merely individual subjective feelings or opinion.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“A second philosophical development that contributed to emotivism was the rise of logical positivism. Logical positivists claimed that only two types of statements are possible: (1) analytical statements, such as definitions, and (2) factual statements that are empirically verifiable.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“For the subjectivist, moral judgments are reports or statements of fact about the attitude of the person who says them. For the emotivist, moral judgments are not facts at all, but emotional expressions about an action or person. The subjectivist will say, “Homosexuality is wrong!” This means, “I disapprove of homosexuality.” For the emotivist, the same statement means, “Homosexuality, yuck! Boo!” Emotivism is thus a more sophisticated theory than subjectivism. Both share the idea that moral judgments are not normative statements and that objective moral facts are nonexistent.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“A final criticism of Kant is that his categorical imperative is only a procedural morality and does not offer any guidance in terms of the content of morality.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics

“A second line of criticism of Kant comes from the results of the categorical imperative. According to Kant, when properly applied, the categorical imperative gives one absolute moral rules, which is the goal. That is, it produces an exceptionless moral system—there are never any exceptions to Kantian formulated moral rules. Kant himself suggests that even when confronted with the need to lie in order to protect an innocent person who is about to be killed, one still has an unqualified duty to tell the truth. Yet this seems very problematic and illustrates one of the tensions of absolutist deontological moral systems in general—they cannot deal with scenarios when principles conflict.”
― Scott B. Rae, Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics