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We all know that murder, lying, and stealing are wrong. Many
of us have also made up our minds on controversial topics like
abortion or capital punishment. Yet we continue to have disagreements
about such topics as we struggle to find what is the "right"
answer to moral problems. Religious
beliefs may provide answers for some, but not
everyone is religious. And people often debate social, governmental,
and business issues in non-religious terms. Can we supply a
secular basis to our inherited Judeo-Christian morality?
For
some twenty-five centuries, philosophers have attempted to explain
and account for our moral experience. They've tried to describe
what's worth seeking in human life, along with the moral
rules that should guide our behavior and the virtues
that constitute human excellence.
Three
major categories of philosophical
ethics stretch back to ancient Greece and continue
into the present. One, focusing on the consequences of
actions, holds that pleasure or happiness is our basic goal;
here the right thing to do is to maximize pleasure or
happiness. The second category emphasizes reason,
claiming that duty, rights, and justice are basic.
The third category considers what it means to lead a good
life, along with the role virtue plays in that life.
All
three trends combine to influence the current discussion of
moral problems. By becoming familiar with them, we can learn
to think more clearly about moral issues. We can defend our
decisions or opinions to others who are affected by them. And
we can more effectively participate in today's discussions about
the morality of public policy issues.
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