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Modern Moral Philosophy
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Modern Moral Philosophy was an influential article originally published in the journal Philosophy 33, No. 124 (January 1954).
The author, G. E. M. Anscombe, presents three theses.
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"It is not profitable for us at present to do moral philosophy; that should be laid aside at any rate until we have an adequate philosophy of psychology, in which we are conspicuously lacking."
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"Concepts of obligation, and duty — moral obligation and moral duty, that is to say — and of what is morally right and wrong, and of the moral sense of "ought," ought to be jettisoned if this is psychologically possible; because they are survivals, or derivatives from survivals, from an earlier conception of ethics which no longer generally survives, and are only harmful without it."
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"The differences between the well‑known English writers on moral philosophy from Sidgwick to the present day are of little importance."
The article[1] has influenced the emergence of contemporary virtue ethics, especially (as is often remarked) through the work of Alasdair MacIntyre. Notably, the term "consequentialism" was first defined in this paper.
- "Virtue Ethics", edited by Roger Crisp and Michael Slote, Oxford, 1997.
- After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, London, 1985 (2nd ed.).