Ethics

The three different questions that hide under one word, why no survey of opinion answers any of them, and what the free will course left undone.

Relativism, error theory and expressivism stated at their strongest, the arguments for and against each, and why none of them lets you skip the first-order question.

Putting a moral argument in attackable form, killing a principle with one counterexample, what thought experiments are for, and reflective equilibrium as the standard of success.

The theory that the right act is the one that makes things go best, stated precisely enough to be attacked, with its calculus, its impartiality and its historical record.

Hedonism, preference satisfaction and objective lists, the problem of comparing welfare between people, and the arithmetic of population that no theory of the good survives intact.

The cases where maximising the good requires something monstrous, the demand it makes on a life, Williams on integrity, and whether rule and two-level versions repair any of it.

Kant's attempt to derive morality from consistency alone, with both contradiction tests worked, the formula of humanity, and what a theory of constraints buys.

The murderer at the door, Ross's pro tanto duties, threshold views, the doctrine of double effect, and what the trolley literature does and does not establish.

Aristotle's question about what sort of person to be, the function argument, virtue as a mean, habituation, practical wisdom, and whether the theory can guide an action.

The experimental case that situations predict behaviour better than traits do, what the numbers actually say, and what a virtue ethics that takes the evidence seriously can still claim.

Which beings have moral standing, the argument from marginal cases, the scale of animal agriculture, what is owed to people not yet born, and why discounting the future is a moral choice.

Justice as what could be agreed behind a veil of ignorance, Nozick's historical alternative, Scanlon's test of reasonable rejection, and what contract views leave out.

Whether killing differs from letting die, what the euthanasia data shows, Thomson's violinist and Marquis on a future like ours, and where the three frameworks actually diverge.

Singer's argument from the drowning child, what a life actually costs to save, the serious objections to effective giving, and whether an impartial morality leaves room for loving anyone in particular.

The whole subject as six recurring questions, how to state a view so it can be attacked, how to argue with someone whose foundations differ, and what to do when you do not know which theory is right.