Word: moralisms
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There is a virtue to this, of course. The purpose of ethics is to apply moral concepts to life, but that is often a tricky business; rather than impose one set of morals on a diverse group, situational ethics allow for a wide variety of moral codes, within a basic, minimal framework of what all men and women will accept. Certainly, there is no greater tyranny than the moral outrage of a majority working on those of a conscientious minority, and so situation ethics wisely shies away from broad pronouncements of right and wrong...
This is as it should be. Yet the problem with this type of thinking is that it is easily perverted: it makes the step from one world, where there are very few moral absolutes, to another world, where there are none, all too simple. The fact that many students of professional ethics are left to assume the basic moral principles of the world, leaves them the freedom to assume that they do not exist at all. "The ethics of the situation" obscure the morality of the human condition; living for the moment, for the immediate context, the professional...
...TAUGHT, before I came to Harvard, that this is wrong. I learned that situation ethics have only a limited value--that they can be applied only where there is not a great, compelling moral reason on the other side of the fence. Although I learned to be careful not to apply my own standards to every case--to be tolerant of other views, which the vast majority of the time do not involve great moral principles--I was taught that occasions still arise when it is simply wrong to ignore the basic moral principles. The most basic of these...
...political expert, but this is not good from a moral point of view. The American-Taiwan treaty is broken. It may be essential from a practical point of view. But Carter's moral action is not good. What Goldwater says is right...
...American-Taiwan treaty is broken. It may be essential from a practical point of view. But Carter's moral action is not good ... Our government wants political and internal results without war and with the help of Vietnamese and Cuban forces."Columbia Daily SpectatorMitch Rollnick"It is impossible for the Soviet government to put all people who speak out into prison. The quarantine aspect is not essential. as long as the struggle of ideas remains...