Abstract
What is morality about? This chapter explores morality by distinguishing between its formal object and its material object. Formally speaking morality concerns (the evaluation of) human (inter)action insofar as it is desired or required. It is distinguished from other normative evaluations by its focus on things that are fundamentally desirable or required. In terms of contents or its material object four contexts are described in which moral issues arise: (i) when fundamental (human) rights come into play; (ii) when question about the good life arise; (iii) when our thinking goes astray; (iv) when our virtuousness and the development of our character can grow or be affected by our actions.
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Notes
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A moral commandment or prohibition is also called a categorical imperative. An imperative is a command; the term categorical is another word for unconditional or unqualified.
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This case is based on a series of events that played out in Amsterdam in 2016 (see van Lent & Ribbens, 2017). In the real case the person whol felt fooled by Beatrice was the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum.
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“I would like to have my nose and my ears removed.” Plastic surgeons have been known to receive requests that are this extreme. Would you be prepared to honor such a request? And if so, would you do it for the money, because you refuse to discriminate or because you believe every individual has an inalienable right to choose? See Romanillos Hoendervanger (2021).
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Dubbink, W. (2023). Morality: When Does it Come into Play?. In: Dubbink, W., Deijl, W.v.d. (eds) Business Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37932-1_2
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