TRANSITION AND REVIEW: THE MST FORMULA

In the next three chapters, I compare the merits of the theory developed in the preceding chapters to some alternative contemporary normative ethical theories. This chapter considers intuitionist and Kantian approaches to ethics, Chapter 16, utilitarian and consequentialist theories, and Chapter 17, contractualist theories. Other approaches to ethics, including virtue ethics and feminist views, will be more briefly considered in the final chapter, which deals with the implications of the moral theory for social and applied ethics, political philosophy, law and moral education. This chapter begins with a brief review of the theory.

The ethical view developed in the preceding fourteen chapters may be described as a “moral sphere theory” of the right (or right action) supported by a “dimensional theory” of the good (or value). Since a convenient name is needed for the entire view, I will refer to it hereafter as the “moral sphere theory” of the good and the right (or MST). This designation will be used more regularly from this point onward. One might express the view in a formula that oversimplifies a bit and requires fleshing out, but captures its spirit: