ABSTRACT
Bernward Gesang centralizes 'ethical theories' as the thing that makes the difference; moral philosophers are familiar with these in the way that the ordinary person is not, and ethical theory is essential, in his view, to the formation of moral judgement. While philosophers are in many respects little different to normal folk in having intuitions and acquiring social facts, Gesang argues that familiarity with ethical theory is necessary to be able to perform the reflective equilibrium that is required to form moral judgement. Given that Gesang does not restrict himself to the advisory roles that ethicists perform, but makes a general claim about ethical expertise, this could be interpreted as saying that explicit knowledge of ethical theory is critically necessary to be moral. The 'ethical theory' approach to ethics as espoused by Gesang constitutes only one way of encouraging a moral mindset.
