ABSTRACT

Philosophic ethics has been faced with a relatively new challenge: to provide theoretical frameworks within which practical moral problems can be solved. This challenge has been posed from many quarters, from outside as well as within philosophy. Moral theorizing and the application of moral theory in practical moral judgment is not limited to moral philosophers. Practically everyone theorizes about values, and disciplines other than philosophy use moral theories of one kind or another to justify their activities or to resolve problems within their fields. Marxism, pragmatism, and existentialism continued to be prominent moral philosophies in the twentieth century, as did utilitarianism and Thomism, although all these positions have been reformulated in an attempt to answer their critics. The image of a philosopher working like John Stuart Mill or John Dewey, developing a theory which addresses important social issues, is not, by and large, consistent with the activities of moral philosophers in the twentieth century.