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Single Idea 20289

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / b. Defining ethics ]

Full Idea

A distinguishng feature of ethics is that ethical judgements are universalisable. Ethics requires us to go beyond our own personal point of view to a standpoint like that of the impartial spectator who takes a universal point of view.

Gist of Idea

Ethics is universalisable - it must involve an impartial and universal view of things

Source

Peter Singer (Practical Ethics [1979], 10)

Book Ref

Singer,Peter: 'Practical Ethics' [CUP 1989], p.204

A Reaction

I'm thinking that ethical agents are more 'situated' than that. Suppose a finance minister stole billions in tax and gave it to a poor country. Good from the universal angle, perhaps, but a shocking betrayal of his own community.

The 15 ideas with the same theme [can we specify exactly what ethics is?]:

2141 I suggest that we forget about trying to define goodness itself for the time being [Plato]
19582 Morality and philosophy are mutually dependent [Novalis]
14784 Ethics is the science of aims [Peirce]
7136 Morality is a system of values which accompanies a being's life [Nietzsche]
8039 Moore tries to show that 'good' is indefinable, but doesn't understand what a definition is [MacIntyre on Moore,GE]
2943 Ethics cannot be put into words [Wittgenstein]
6968 Some people think there are ethical facts, but of a 'queer' sort [Ayer]
6972 A right attitude is just an attitude one is prepared to stand by [Ayer]
22445 Morality shows murder is wrong, but not what counts as a murder [Foot]
7419 Ethics is the conscious practice of freedom [Foucault]
5319 Avoid punishment, then get rewards, avoid rejection, avoid guilt, accept contracts, follow conscience [Kohlberg, by Wilson,EO]
4003 Selfhood and moral values are inextricably intertwined [Taylor,C]
20289 Ethics is universalisable - it must involve an impartial and universal view of things [Singer]
18665 Moral problems are responsibility conflicts, needing contextual and narrative attention to relationships [Gilligan]
21788 The moral will is self-determining, but the ethical will is met in society [Houlgate]