Tutorial #9. Moral Particularism. Discussion Questions

After having read Jennifer Flynn (2010). "Recent Work: Moral Particularism." Analysis 70 (1), try to think about these questions.

• Are there rules that may never be permissibly broken?
• Are there any useful moral rules?
• Are there any morally relevant pattern of features in the world?
• Can we say in advance, without taking into consideration the whole context, whether a certain feature in a situation is morally relevant? Think of whether the fact that an action makes others happy is always a reason to do it.
• Should morality be understood in terms of rules, principles and theory?
• Is holism in the theory of reasons true, and would its truth support “particularism”?
• What is a moral generalization? Give some examples
• Do moral reasons vary with context?
• Do some features of the world have a default moral relevance? For example, in the absence of appropriate justification is "killing" always wrong?
• If there are no moral rules, how can we know what we ought to do in particular situations?
• Do we acquire moral knowledge as if we were moral particularists