Tutorial # 9. Moral Principles and Moral Particularism. In a Nutshell

+ The (alleged) role of principles and rules in moral thought and judgement.

- Criteria of right and wrong actions that can be applied to any case and allow us to derive particular moral judgements that tell us what we ought to do in any given situation.
- Systematize morality.
- Justify and explain our particular moral judgements.
- Standards of moral evaluation and decision-making.
- Make our behaviour more predictable.
- Help us to perceive morally relevant features in a situation.
- Necessary in moral development and education.

+ Moral particularists have a negative attitude towards principles.

They defend some or all of the following claims:
- There are no or at most very few (true or defensible) moral principles.
- Moral principles are not necessary for moral reasoning.
- Moral principles are not even useful in moral reasoning.


From Dancy (2004: 7). Ethics Without Principles

"Generalism:
The very possibility of moral thought and judgement depends on the provision of a suitable supply of moral principles.

Particularism:
The possibility of moral thought and judgement does not depend on the provision of a suitable supply of moral principles."

From Jennifer Flynn (2010). "Recent Work: Moral Particularism." Analysis 70 (1).

"Two sorts of claims [for particularism]: one relates to moral principles, the other to moral reasons. Particularism as an overall position generally involves commitments about both sorts of claims: moral principles do not exist (or are unnecessary), and moral reasons function holistically."

"The holism of reasons maintains that ‘a feature that is a reason in one case may be no reason at all, or an opposite reason, in another’ (Dancy 2004: 7). Put slightly differently, the idea is that a reason can make an action right under one set of circumstances without always making an action right in all circumstances."