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Full Idea
It would be a great improvement if, instead of 'morally wrong', one always named a genus such as 'untruthful', 'unchaste', or 'unjust'.
Gist of Idea
It would be better to point to failings of character, than to moral wrongness of actions
Source
G.E.M. Anscombe (Modern Moral Philosophy [1958], p.183)
Book Ref
'The Is/Ought Question', ed/tr. Hudson,W.H. [Macmillan 1969], p.183
A Reaction
People are indeed much more struck by the suggestion that they have a weakness of character, rather than that they have just done something wrong. This is Anscombe's first great appeal for a return to virtue as the basis of ethics.
| 8351 | With diseases we easily trace a cause from an effect, but we cannot predict effects [Anscombe] |
| 8350 | Since Mill causation has usually been explained by necessary and sufficient conditions [Anscombe] |
| 8353 | Freedom involves acting according to an idea [Anscombe] |
| 8352 | To believe in determinism, one must believe in a system which determines events [Anscombe] |
| 10363 | Causation is relative to how we describe the primary relata [Anscombe, by Schaffer,J] |
| 4777 | The word 'cause' is an abstraction from a group of causal terms in a language (scrape, push..) [Anscombe] |
| 20041 | Intentional actions are those which are explained by giving the reason for so acting [Anscombe] |
| 7439 | The qualities involved in sensations are entirely intentional [Anscombe, by Armstrong] |
| 8065 | 'Ought' and 'right' are survivals from earlier ethics, and should be jettisoned [Anscombe] |
| 8069 | Between Aristotle and us, a Judaeo-Christian legal conception of ethics was developed [Anscombe] |
| 8070 | It would be better to point to failings of character, than to moral wrongness of actions [Anscombe] |