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Christianity, Divine Law and Consequentialism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2009

Jean Porter
Affiliation:
The Department of Theology, The University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556

Extract

In 1971 John Rawls remarked that ‘During much of modern moral philosophy the predominant systematic theory has been some form of utilitarianism.’ Although utilitarianism is no longer the dominant school of moral philosophy, it continues to flourish, generating new defenses and reformulations. Yet with the notable exception of Joseph Fletcher, there have been very few Christian ethicistswho have been prepared to declare themselves to be utilitarians or consequentialists.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1995

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References

1 Rawls, John, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1971), vii.Google Scholar

2 See Fletcher, Joseph, Situation Ethics: The New Morality (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1966)Google Scholar, and ‘What's In a Rule? A Situationist's View,’ 325350 in Outka, Gene H. and Ramsey, Paul, editors. Norm and Context in Christian Ethics (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968).Google Scholar

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11 Ibid., 70, 170.

12 Most notable of these is the theory developed by Moore, G.E., in Principia Ethica (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1903).Google Scholar

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19 These would include Ramsey, Paul, ‘The Case of the Curious Exception,’ 67138 in Norm and Context in Christian Ethics, Outka, Gene H. and Ramsey, Paul, editors (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968)Google Scholar; Williams, ‘A Critique of Utilitarianism’; Donagan, The Theory of Morality; Fried, Charles, Right and Wrong (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Meilaender.

20 For an example of this line of argument, see O'Connell, Timothy E., Principles for a Catholic Morality (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1990), 180181.Google Scholar

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23 In what follows, I draw on the discussions of Kovesi, Julius, Moral Notions (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967)Google Scholar; Ramsey, ‘The Case of The Curious Exception,’; and Brennan, J. M., The Open-Texture of Moral Concepts (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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38Eritis Sicut Devs…’ 400; he is quoting Scheffler, 4.

39 Ibid., 402.

40 Ibid., 405.

41 Ibid., 407.

42 Ibid., 407–410.

43 Ibid., 408.

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45 Meilaender, 409.

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49 Parfit, Derek, Reasons and Persons (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), 275.Google Scholar

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53 Fried, 14.

54 Ibid., 20–21.

55 Parfit, 453–454. For a more extensive argument, see Dumont, Louis, Essays on Individualism: Modern Ideology in Anthropological Perspective (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 2359.Google Scholar

56 On this much-discussed topic, see Outka, , Agape and more recently, ‘Universal Love and Impartiality,’ 1103 in Santurri, Edmund N. and Werpehowski, William, editors, The Love Commandments: Essays in Christian Ethics and Moral Philosophy (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1992) for helpful and influential treat-ments.Google Scholar

57 Agape, 311–312, emphasis in the original; compare Ramsey, , Deeds and Rules in Christian Ethics, 104122.Google Scholar

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59 Adams, , ‘A Modified Divide Command Theory of Ethical Wrongness,’ 328.Google Scholar

60 Veritatis Splendor (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana; distributed through the Catholic Resource Network, Trinity Communications, Manassas, Virginia, 1992; no pagination). Paragraphs 80, 82.Google Scholar

61 Ibid., paragraph 80.

62 Grisez, 184; more generally, see 173–204.

63 Donagan, , The Theory of Morality, 64.Google Scholar

64 Ramsey, , ‘The Case of the Curious Exception,’ 92.Google Scholar

65 I am grateful to Joseph Blenkinsopp and Diane Yeager for many helpful comments on earlier drafts of this essay.