Ethical Theory Spring 2021

Discussion of Gewirth

Overview

We are going to spend this session looking for possible weak spots in Gewirth’s argument.

See the handout from the last class for the argument.

Key Points

These are the points you should know or have an opinion about from today’s class.

  1. What prudential rights are.

  2. Why Gewirth thinks that agents are committed to believing in prudential rights.

  3. How Gewirth gets from prudential rights to moral rights.

  4. What you want an argument to show about morality. Is it “why you have to be moral”? Or is it something less, like “what consistency among your ethical beliefs would involve”?