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The Ethics of Life and Death1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
Extract
Moral Philosophy begins with moral intuitions and then, by arguments, either confirms or refutes them. There was a time, not so very long ago, when it was not thought to be so. For, until recently it was the orthodoxy that philosophers qua philosophers ought not to concern themselves with actual moral problems, but should instead only analyse and produce theories of the language of ethics.2 Those bad days are gone, and a mark of their passing is the frequent involvement of philosophers in the public debate of social and moral issues.
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- Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1985
References
page 603 note 2 The obvious counterinstance to this tradition, viz, Bertrand Russell is, as they say, ‘the exception that proves the rule’.
page 603 note 3 A recent example of this tendency to dissociate Christianity from the pursuit of political values is the view expressed by DrNorman, Edward in Christianity and the World Order (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979)Google Scholar, and more briefly in ‘Christianity and Polities’, in Cowling, M. (ed.) Conservative Essays (London: Cassell, 1978).Google Scholar For a detailed response see: Dummett, Michael, Catholicism and the World Order (London: Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1979).Google Scholar
page 604 note 4 The Church and the Bomb (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1982).Google Scholar
page 604 note 5 The Challenge of Peace (London: CTS/SPCK, 1983).Google Scholar
page 605 note 6 John 18: 12–15.
page 605 note 7 Romans 3: 5–21.
page 606 note 8 Nicomachean Ethics (tr) SirRoss, David, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972) 1107a 9–25.Google Scholar
page 607 note 9 For a brief account of Suarez's view see: Copleston, F., History of Philosophy Vol. III (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1953) pp. 377–378.Google Scholar Copleston also discusses the work of Grotius, another Just War theorist of approximately the same period, op. cit., pp. 332–4.
page 608 note 10 I explore this justification of nuclear defence policy in ‘The Morality of Deterrence’, forthcoming in The Heythrop Journal, Vol. XXVI, 1985.Google Scholar