The Right Vs. Wrong Debate

Paper Summary:

The paper examines the three criteria that usually determine a 'right versus wrong' dilemma and discusses two forms of ethical theory; theoretical normative ethics and metaethics. The paper also explains the teleological and the deontological approaches to normative ethical theory. The paper asserts that it is impossible to extricate this 'right versus wrong' debate from a discussion of causality, as all matters of ethics have at their root fundamental assumptions of causality that determine their ultimate utility and application.

From the Paper:

"Causality is the relation between two items one of which is a cause of the other. 'Causality' or 'causation' may also refer to a group of topics including the nature of the causal relation, causal explanation, and the status of causal laws. In modern philosophy, the notion of cause is associated with the idea of something producing or bringing about something else (its effect), a relation sometimes called efficient causation. Historically, the term cause has a broader sense, equivalent to explanatory feature. This usage survives in the account of Aristotle as holding the doctrine of the four causes. The members of Aristotle's quartet, the material, formal, efficient, and final cause, correspond to four kinds of explanation, but only the efficient cause is, without a problem, a candidate for a cause that produces something distinct from itself (Mackie)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "An Overview of." An Overview of Ethical Theory. 19 June 2001.<www.nwmissouri.edu/~rfield/>.
• "Determinism." 2001. Xrefer. 19 June 2001. <www.xrefer.com>.
• Mackie, J. L. 1974. Causes and Conditions. The Cement of the Universe: A Study of Causation. Oxford.
• "Right vs Wrong." 2001. Right vs Wrong: Moral Temptations. 19 June 2001. Marymount University Department of Sociology. <www.marymount.edu>.

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