The morality of the everyday: an initial step towards a research strategy

This paper attempts to problematise morality and to locate and investigate morality as an everyday activity. The paper draws extensively on the work of Zygmunt Bauman on the Holocaust and the challenges the Holocaust makes to social theory and to ethics. Following Bauman and Giddens, I argue that morality is pre-social and forms part of the social world in which we live and that it cannot and should not be codified. Some implications for future research on the morality of the everyday are made.

Euthanasia, morality and the law

"This book assesses the desirability of legalising euthanasia. From the ethical perspective, euthanasia raises many important issues including the right to life, the right to liberty, the avoidance of unnecessary pain, the appropriate allocation of medical resources, and the rights and duties of doctors. Other relevant considerations include the improving standard of palliative care and the "slippery slope" argument. The central arguments for and against euthanasia are evaluated against the background of the leading contemporary moral theories. The book seeks to cut through the rhetoric that has become a feature of the debate and asks whether there is a sound reason for denying the wishes of individuals who express their wish to die."

Whither morality in a hard determinist world?

What would the world be like if hard determinism were true, that is, if all events were determined in such a way as to render all our decisions and actions unfree? In particular, what would morality be like? Indeed, could there be anything distinctively moral in such a world, or would we be left with a moral nihilism in which nothing of moral significance remains? In this paper I explore the ethical implications of hard determinism, focusing on the consequences that our lack of free will would have for moral responsibility (and thus praise and blame), moral obligation, moral rightness and wrongness, and moral goodness. I argue that the truth of hard determinism would compel us to significantly revise our commonsensical understanding of these moral categories. I add, however, that this change in moral outlook would not have dire practical consequences, for we would retain the attitudes and emotions that are essential to forming good interpersonal relationships and to developing morally. In fact, far from being a threat to human flourishing, hard determinism offers the prospect of a life that is morally deeper and more fulfilling than in a world in which we are free.

A cloud of smug over outdoor education : South Park, hybrid cars and environmental morality

In an episode of South Park titled ‘Hey, People, You’ve Gotta Drive Hybrids Already’, Stan convinces townsfolk to buy hybrid cars. This reduces the rate of smog but creates a toxic cloud of ‘smug’. In this paper, I use this parody of eco-correctness to interrogate some of Outdoor Education’s environmental aims. Michel Foucault’s later work on the self, morality and governmentality is used to analyse the production of the [neo- iberal] ‘environmentally responsible citizen’. The possibilities and problems of contemporary citizenship discourse are explored in relation to findings from a longitudinal study of students undertaking a tertiary outdoor and environmental education course.

Law, Theology, and Morality: Conceptions of the Rights to Relief of the Poor in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

This article presents an analysis of certain ways of thinking about law and its relationship to the poor, in particular the rights and entitlements of the poor to the basic necessities of life and the obligations of society to provide those necessities. It focuses on the works of Peter the Chanter and his “circle” at Paris in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Significant in their writings on the quandary between respect for private property and the need to allow those in need to take a share of this private property in order to survive is their negotiation of the intellectual boundaries and understandings between law, theology, and morality. In addition, an understanding of their discussions in light of canonistic and theological works of the time reveal a hitherto under-appreciated contribution to the “subjective rights” language in Peter the Chanter.

An order-based theory of morality

The thesis argues that morality has a non-religious basis in the human need for order. Our need for order explains why we are the moral beings that we are. It also explains the kind of morality that people variously advocate and practice.