| Modern moral theories are (1) foundational, in claiming to find a unified explanation for what is moral and immoral, and a grounding principle for determining what is right and wrong; (2) decisive, in that the theoretical principle supplies a decision procedure for arriving at a moral judgment, where the principle applied to a particular case delivers an answer in a conclusive chain of reasoning; (3) action-guiding, in that moral philosophy is confined mostly to rules and principles for judging right and wrong actions, rather than broader conceptions such as the nature and quality of persons, forms of life, or comprisals of meaning; and (4) subject-based, in that moral analysis is centered in the human subject, its faculties, procedures, and decisions. | Modern moral theories are (1) foundational, in claiming to find a unified explanation for what is moral and immoral, and a grounding principle for determining what is right and wrong; (2) decisive, in that the theoretical principle supplies a decision procedure for arriving at a moral judgment, where the principle applied to a particular case delivers an answer in a conclusive chain of reasoning; (3) action-guiding, in that moral philosophy is confined mostly to rules and principles for judging right and wrong actions, rather than broader conceptions such as the nature and quality of persons, forms of life, or comprisals of meaning; and (4) subject-based, in that moral analysis is centered in the human subject, its faculties, procedures, and decisions. |
