My Ethics Theory

 In this course you have spent a considerable amount of time studying metaethics, examining various ethical theories that promise to provide you with a methodology for determining right from wrong. These included a simple “list” metaethic, Virtue Ethics, Natural Law Ethics, Ethical Egoism, Utilitarianism, Duty Ethics, and the Revelational Christian Ethic, as well as related metaphysical views such as Social Contract Theory, Moral Realism, Divine Command Theory, and Divine Nature Theory. Now it is time for you to decide for yourself how you are going to distinguish what is moral from what is immoral. This is your chance to devise your own metaethical theory and present it to the class.

In a post of 500 to 600 words, systematically describe what you think is the best way to approach ethics. Your goal is to explain how we can know what makes an action moral or immoral. In doing this you must interact with the ethical theories that you have studied in class. You are not required to adopt one of these theories; you may make up your own or use one that you have come across in your research from other assignments/readings, but you can adopt one of the theories that you have studied if one of them seems best to you. Alternatively you can combine theories if you think certain aspects of various theories work and complement each other, but be careful that you do not adopt theories that contradict one another. 

In your thread, explain your theory and give a rationale for why you think yours is the best approach. Your argument(s) for your approach must be carefully-considered, logical arguments, not just “I feel like that would be best” or “that’s what I was raised to believe.”

Do not stray into a lengthy discussion of applied ethics. Be sure that this assignment focuses strictly on metaethics. Save applied ethics for your next Discussion Board. 

Be sure to carefully define your terms. You are encouraged to support your position with rational arguments, fitting examples, and expert sources. Any quotes or information used from sources other than yourself must be cited using footnotes in current Turabian format and will not count towards the total word count.

You will be penalized for falling short or exceeding the word count. This is a university-level writing assignment and therefore it must be carefully proofread, free of grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Do not use slang, emoticons, or abbreviations (as if you are texting or sending an email to a friend).

Submit your thread by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Monday of Module/Week 5.