Ross on Duty and Ignorance

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Terrance C. McConnell, Professor (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: In his Foundations of Ethics, W. D. Ross continued to maintain the view, first developed in The Right and the Good, that "right" designates that which is morally suitable to the situation in which an agent finds himself.1 But, as Ross notes, more needs to be said since an agent's situation contains two elements. The objective element consists of facts about the persons and things involved in the situation. That act which in fact is morally suitable to the situation as it actually is represents the objective element and is said by Ross to be objectively right. The subjective element consists of the agent's thoughts about the situation. That act which the agent, in view of his beliefs about the situation, thinks is morally suitable is called by Ross subjectively right (FE, p. 146).

Additional Information

Publication
History of Philosophy Quarterly 5(1) (January 1988), pp. 79-95.
Language: English
Date: 1988
Keywords
Ethics, Morals, Duty, Obligation, Ethical theory

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