''The Elements of Moral Philosophy'' is a 1986

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...

textbook by the philosophers James Rachels and Stuart Rachels. It explains a number of moral theories and topics, including

cultural relativism Cultural relativism is the idea that a person's beliefs and practices should be understood based on that person's own culture. Proponents of cultural relativism also tend to argue that the norms and values of one culture should not be evaluated ...

subjectivism Subjectivism is the doctrine that "our own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of our experience", instead of shared or communal, and that there is no external or objective truth. The success of this position is historically attribute ...

, divine command theory,

ethical egoism In ethical philosophy, ethical egoism is the normative position that moral agents ''ought'' to act in their own self-interest. It differs from psychological egoism, which claims that people ''can only'' act in their self-interest. Ethical egoi ...

social contract In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is a theory or model that originated during the Age of Enlightenment and usually, although not always, concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Social ...

theory,

utilitarianism In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different chara ...

Kantian ethics Kantian ethics refers to a deontological ethical theory developed by German philosopher Immanuel Kant that is based on the notion that: "It is impossible to think of anything at all in the world, or indeed even beyond it, that could be conside ...

, and

deontology In moral philosophy, deontological ethics or deontology (from Greek: + ) is the normative ethical theory that the morality of an action should be based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series of rules and principles, r ...

. The book uses real-life examples in explaining the theories. The author considers some problems such as relativism and moral subjectivism, religion and its relations with morality, the ethical and psychological selfishness of people, at the same time that he shows us some very important normative theories, such as Kantianism, utilitarianism, ethics. of virtue, feminist ethics and contractualist theories. The book is not intended to give a clear and unified theory about the "truth" of the analyzed topics, but rather offers a vision of a set of ideas, theories and competent arguments since philosophy as morality itself is first of all or others. an exercise of reason.

Topics

The moral

The book tells us that morality refers to, at the very least, the effort to guide our behavior for reasons. This refers to doing something for which there are better reasons while giving equal weight to the interests of each person who will be affected by what we do. It also gives us a clear picture of what it means to be morally responsible. He is someone who looks out impartially for the interests of everyone who is affected by his actions, someone who carefully distinguishes facts and evaluates their implications, someone who accepts principles of conduct after carefully analyzing them to be sure that are concrete, be willing to listen to reason even when it means for him to have to review his own previous convictions and finally be willing to act on the consequences of his consideration.

Ethical Egoism

Within the chapter of ethical egoism, it is discussed how people act in or carry out their activities in a disinterested way. Many people in the day to day carry out actions in which they help and benefit each other. Community work, donations, foundations and social service work are many examples of people who act in a disinterested way always thinking of helping their neighbor, however in this chapter a theory of human nature called "psychological selfishness" is mentioned in which tells us that no one is capable of acting disinterestedly since the aforementioned is an illusion and all people act always thinking in themselves.

Does Morality depend on religion?

The discussion between whether there is a connection between morality and religion and its influence within it are topics that this chapter addresses. People's assumptions tend to see religious entities as moral representatives and take them as good moral advisers but it is because it is viewed from a non-religious perspective in which the world without religion is a cold and meaningless place for many people.

Editions

James Rachels wrote the first edition in 1986. He revised the book three times, adding a chapter on "The Ethics of Virtue" in 1993 and a chapter on "Feminism and the Ethics of Care" in 1999. The fourth edition appeared in 2003, the year Rachels died. Since then, his son Stuart has written the fifth edition and the sixth edition, which was released in April 2009. An 8th edition was released in October 2014. The book has been translated into Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish, Persian and Albanian. It is known for its accessibility to a wide readership.

External links

*http://www.jamesrachels.org/stuart/EMP.htm Stuart Rachels' discussion of the sixth edition of the book *http://www.jamesrachels.org/ James Rachels' website {{DEFAULTSORT:Elements of Moral Philosophy 1986 non-fiction books 1993 non-fiction books 1999 non-fiction books 2003 non-fiction books 2007 non-fiction books 2009 non-fiction books 2011 non-fiction books 2014 non-fiction books Ethics books McGraw-Hill books Philosophy textbooks