Thinking about moral issues

The Resource Thinking about moral issues
Label
Thinking about moral issues
Statement of responsibility
[Richard DeGeorge]
Creator
Contributor
Narrator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
We all know that murder, lying, and stealing are wrong. Many of us have also made up our minds on controversial topics like abortion or capital punishment. Yet we continue to have disagreements about such topics as we struggle to find what is the "right" answer to moral problems. Religious beliefs may provide answers for some, but not everyone is religious. And people often debate social, governmental, and business issues in non-religious terms. Can we supply a secular basis to our inherited Judeo-Christian morality? For some twenty-five centuries, philosophers have attempted to explain and account for our moral experience. They've tried to describe what's worth seeking in human life, along with the moral rules that should guide our behavior and the virtues that constitute human excellence. Three major categories of philosophical ethics stretch back to ancient Greece and continue into the present. One, focusing on the consequences of actions, holds that pleasure or happiness is our basic goal; here the right thing to do is to maximize pleasure or happiness. The second category emphasizes reason, claiming that duty, rights, and justice are basic. The third category considers what it means to lead a good life, along with the role virtue plays in that life. All three trends combine to influence the current discussion of moral problems. By becoming familiar with them, we can learn to think more clearly about moral issues. We can defend our decisions or opinions to others who are affected by them. And we can more effectively participate in today's discussions about the morality of public policy issues
Member of
Accompanying matter
technical information on music
Cataloging source
Midwest
Dewey number
170
Form of composition
not applicable
Format of music
not applicable
Literary text for sound recordings
other
PerformerNote
Read by Cliff Robertson
Target audience
adult
Transposition and arrangement
not applicable

Context

Context of Thinking about moral issues

Work of

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