Open the main map: 60.9.3.2 Ethics
The folder note is now the main Ethics MOC. Its topic maps, study route, debate connections, and live database replace this older navigation page.
Earlier curated map, preserved
⬅️ Back to 60.9 Philosophy · Sister MOCs: Epistemology (MOC) · Political Philosophy (MOC) · Metaphysics & Mind (MOC) · Schools of Thought (MOC)
The biggest area of the folder. Two questions run through all of it: what makes an act right? (normative ethics) and what kind of thing is a moral claim in the first place? (metaethics).
- 🗺️ Start with Big‑picture Map Of Moral Philosophy and Philosophical Foundations for Morality and Their Thinkers
- 🧠 Then Metaethics Mindmap and the Moral Philosophy canvas (file not included in this release)
Normative Theories
- Unified curriculum — Phase 5: Normative ethics → Phase 6: Metaethics foundations → Phase 7: Deeper metaethics — ordered book, passage, article and lesson checklists
- Deontology — Deontological Ethics (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) · Threshold Deontology · Deontological vs Teleological
- Consequentialism · Utilitarianism · Hedonism
- Contractualism · framework of virtue (virtue ethics) · Epicureanism
- Kant’s machinery → Categorical Imperative · Hypothetical Imperatives · Categorical vs. Hypothetical Imperative · Categorical Morality
Self-Interest, Sentiment & Commercial Society
- Mandeville, Rand, and Hume - Self-Interest, Virtue, and the Sources of Morality — three-way comparison: is self-interest vice, virtue, or just one passion among many?
- Can a Feeling Be Wrong - Stoics vs Hume and Hutcheson — the real fault line between Stoicism and Scottish sentimentalism: a Euthyphro question, not reason vs. feeling
- Hume's Corrections of Sentiment - The General Point of View — the three corrections of Treatise 3.3.1, what they can and cannot fix, and why “recommendations” is the wrong genre
- Graver Audit - Correcting the Stoic Side of the Hume Comparison — a draft comparison checked line by line against Graver’s Stoicism and Emotion
- On the Randian Argument - Robert Nozick — tests whether life as the condition of value can yield rational egoism and individual rights
- Bernard Mandeville · Ayn Rand · David Hume · Adam Smith · Objectivism · Hedonism
Metaethics — What Are Moral Claims?
The realism question
- Moral Realism vs. Anti-Realism · Objective Moral Systems · Subjective Morality · Subjectivism and Objectivism
- Moral Pluralism Is Not Moral Relativism — separates descriptive diversity, normative pluralism, moral monism, and framework-relative truth
- Moral Naturalism · Ethical non-naturalism · Naturalistic fallacy · stance-independent moral reasons
The cognitivism question
- Moral Cognitivism vs. Non-Cognitivism · Non-cognitivism · truth-apt
- Emotivism · Expressivism · hybrid expressivist · Quasi-realism · Universal prescriptivism
- The classic objection → Frege–Geach problem
Motivation
- Internalism and externalism
- Hume, Stoicism, and Whether Reason Can Motivate Moral Action — reason, sentiment, practical knowledge, and the modern science of moral motivation
- The Stoic counterexample to the Humean theory of motivation → impulse as assent
The Is–Ought Problem
- Hume Is-Ought Problem · Is-Ought Problem · Fact–value distinction
- Is-Ought Problem and Secular Ethics
Foundations & the Regress
- The Foundations of Morality - Intuition, Justification, and Infinite Regress
- Morality without foundation just preference?
- Cross-branch → Foundationalism · Münchhausen trilemma - Agrippa's Trilemma · Problem of the Criterion
Practice the argument
- Does Morality Require Religion - Master — first live case: does objective morality require religious belief or God? Four mental cues and a fair treatment of the necessary-divine-nature reply.
- Morality and Religion - Practice — retrieval cards, speaking reps, sparring prompt, and repair log.
- REF - Objective Morality and God — deeper objections, source boundaries, and the positive account’s own burdens.
Can Morality Be Secular?
- Secular Morality · Secular Morality 1
- Can Atheism and Reason Ground Morality?
- Atheist vs Christian vs Spiritual Thinker Is Not Believing In God Causing More Harm Than Good?!
- Atheist vs. theist dialogue tree (file not included in this release)
Debates & Applied Arguments
- Trent Horn - Objective Morality Debate Audit: three full debate transcripts, timestamped counterarguments on moral realism, natural law, equality, contracts, and political authority; includes fair concessions and short spoken replies.
- Hume, Reid, and Locke - Destiny v Asmongold Philosophy Audit: timestamped transcript audit of common sense, empirical evidence, moral progress, intuition, theism, natural rights, and consent; distinguishes accurate philosophy from historical errors and unsupported political conclusions.
- Analysis of Andrew Wilson Debate (Moral Language) · Analysis of Andrew Wilson Debate (Moral Language) research list
- Force Doctrine · Against "Force Doctrine" · Countering Advantage of the Stronger
- Performative Morality
The Psychology of Morality
- The Social Intuitionist Model of Moral Judgment — Haidt’s six-link account of intuition-first judgment, post hoc reasoning, social correction, and private reflection
- The Ethics of Autonomy, Community, and Divinity — Shweder and Haidt’s three moral languages, WEIRD sampling problem, descriptive pluralism, and normative audit
- Intuition Is Evidence, Not a Verdict — a practical audit for treating intuitions as defeasible evidence
- Moral Psychology Does Not Settle Metaethics — separates causal, semantic, ontological, epistemic, and normative questions
- How Should Moral Judgment Combine Intuition, Reason, and Consequences - Argument Map — strongest cases, failure modes, and a constrained reflective-judgment synthesis
- Jonathan Haidt's Moral Ddumbfounding Stories · The Righteous Mind - Jonathan Haidt
- Hume vs. Kant on the Human Mind - What Modern Psychology and Neuroscience Support — emotion, intention, universalization, structured trade-offs, and moral judgment
- Human Nature · The Psychology of Morality - Peterson Academy
- Position → Morality · Writing → Your Moral Intuitions Need a Constitution
Courses & Long-Form
- The Philosophy of Ethics (Peterson Academy)
- Justice - What's The Right Thing To Do - YouTube · Justice by Michael J. Sandel
- Are Ethics Just Emotions? - Simon Blackburn
Base index
60.9.3.2 Ethics.base (file not included in this release)
Filed captures and working notes — October 2026
Ethics, moral judgment and primary-text notes
- Alienation Consequentialism and the Demands of Morality - Peter Railton — preserved working note or source capture
- Moral Luck — preserved working note or source capture
- Parker vs Jay Dyer on Subjectivity — preserved working note or source capture
- Human Nature — merged capture, retained in the named section
- Random Notes on Moral Phil research — merged capture, retained in the named section