Morals And Consent

Consent is a basic component of the ethics of human relations, making permissible a wide range of conduct that would otherwise be wrongful. Consent marks the difference between slavery and employment, permissible sexual relations and rape, borrowing or selling and theft, medical treatment and battery, participation in research and being a human guinea pig. This book assembles the contributions of a distinguished group of scholars concerning the ethics of consent in theory and practice. Part One addresses theoretical perspectives on the nature and moral force of consent, and its relationship to key ethical concepts, such as autonomy and paternalism. Part Two examines consent in a broad range of contexts, including sexual relations, contracts, selling organs, political legitimacy, medicine, and research.

How are we meant to behave? And how are we to defend whatever answer we give? Morals and Consent grounds our notion of morality in natural evolution, and from that basis, Malcolm Murray shows why contractarianism is a far more viable moral theory than is widely believed. The scope of Morals and Consent has two main parts: theory and application. In his discussion of theory, Murray defends contractarianism by appealing to evolutionary game theory and metaethical analyses. His main argument is that we are not going to find morality as an objective fact in the world, and that instead, we can understand morality as a reciprocal cooperative trait. From this minimal moral architecture, Murray derives his innovative consent principle. The application of the theory, detailing what contractarians can – or ought to – say about moral matters, takes up the greater portion of the work. Murray offers a trenchant examination of what moral constraints we can claim concerning death (abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment), sex (pornography, prostitution, and sexual assault), beneficence (toward present and future people, animals, and the environment), and liberty (genetic enhancement, organ sales, and torture). By focusing on evolutionary contractarianism and the epistemic justification of our moral claims – or lack thereof – Malcolm Murray’s Morals and Consent is a serious advance in the field of applied ethics and fills an important void.

Building on simple truths, Consent Is Morality shows how consent is a universal human concept and why respecting consent choices is the fundamental value that defines moral behavior. Consent Is Morality takes respect for consent choices to its natural conclusion, turning commonly held ideas of the world upside-down in a way that's difficult to accept, but impossible to deny. As chaos seems to increase in the world, Consent Is Morality stands firmly on a deep-rooted philosophy of peace and offers a practical solution to some of the most challenging problems facing mankind.

Contrasts liberal views in the tradition of John Locke with conservative Whig attitudes as personified by Edmund Burke in a consideration of moral duty and civil disobedience

How are we meant to behave? And how are we to defend whatever answer we give? Morals and Consent grounds our notion of morality in natural evolution, and from that basis, Malcolm Murray shows why contractarianism is a far more viable moral theory than is widely believed. The scope of Morals and Consent has two main parts: theory and application. In his discussion of theory, Murray defends contractarianism by appealing to evolutionary game theory and metaethical analyses. His main argument is that we are not going to find morality as an objective fact in the world, and that instead, we can understand morality as a reciprocal cooperative trait. From this minimal moral architecture, Murray derives his innovative consent principle. The application of the theory, detailing what contractarians can - or ought to - say about moral matters, takes up the greater portion of the work. Murray offers a trenchant examination of what moral constraints we can claim concerning death (abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment), sex (pornography, prostitution, and sexual assault), beneficence (toward present and future people, animals, and the environment), and liberty (genetic enhancement, organ sales, and torture). By focusing on evolutionary contractarianism and the epistemic justification of our moral claims - or lack thereof - Malcolm Murray's Morals and Consent is a serious advance in the field of applied ethics and fills an important void.

Building on simple truths, Consent Is Morality shows how consent is a universal human concept and why respecting consent choices is the fundamental value that defines moral behavior. Consent Is Morality takes respect for consent choices to its natural conclusion, turning commonly held ideas of the world upside-down in a way that's difficult to accept, but impossible to deny. As chaos seems to increase in the world, Consent Is Morality stands firmly on a deep-rooted philosophy of peace and offers a practical solution to some of the most challenging problems facing mankind.