Lexicon of Arguments

 

I XIII
Ethics/P. Singer: In the third edition of my Practical Ethics⁽¹⁾, I have made a transition towards an ethics that assumes more objective ethical truths. This is partly due to the reading of Derek Parfits book "On What Matters"⁽²⁾.
I 4
Ethics/P. Singer: Where does our ethics come from? Observations on animals such as chimpanzees show that higher animals have a sense of reciprocity.
>Animals.
Nature/P. Singer: it is a mistake to believe that everything natural is good and we just have to follow our natural intuitions.
>Nature, >Intuitions, >Good, >Values.
P. Singer: Thesis: we have inherited the standards from our ancestors. Our task is to find out which of these must be changed.
>Community, >Society.
I 9
Ethics/P. Singer: how can we distinguish between ethical and unethical behavior?
>Ethics.
Objectively, we can distinguish whether someone acts according to our conventions, according to his conventions, or after no conventions at all.
>Objectivity.
I 10
Convention: a mere self-interest will not be considered an ethical behavior. Why?
Solution: Ethics must stand on a broader basis than the interests of the individual.
>Generalizability,
> Universality, >Interest.


1.Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, 3rd ed. Cambridge University Press (2011)
2. Derek Parfit, On what Matters, Oxford (2011).