Outline of Positions and Philosophers
By William Soderberg
1. Foundationalism (reality as firmly grounded in self-evident or factual truths)
Morality is based on knowledge of ultimate reality
Linked loosely with ways of life: dualism with agricultural; materialism with industrial
1.1 Strict moral communitarianism or moral conservatism (dualist worldview, rationalism)
Classic virtue theory: Plato, Epictetus, Augustine, Descartes,
Fascism: Benito Mussolini
1.2 Strict moral liberalism (materialist or naturalist worldview, empiricism)
Hedonism: Epicurus, Hobbes (transition figure to strict moral liberalism)
Strict deontologism (classic libertarianism): John Locke, Thomas Jefferson
Strict consequentialism (classic utilitarian): Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill & Harriet Taylor, Karl Marx
2. Anti-foundationalism or Non-foundationalism (reality as phenomenon or flow of experience, coherentism in epistemology)
Morality arises from personal and collective experience
Different notions of the good life: nomadic, agricultural, industrial
2.1 Moderate moral communitarianism or moderate moral conservatism
Moderate virtue theory: Aristotle, Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Sandel, Charles Taylor; Edmund Husserl, Jean-Paul Sartre; Confucianist Perspectives
Ethics of Care: M.L.King, Cornel West, Bill Lawson, Lucius Outlaw; Annette Baier, Sara Ruddick, Jean Grimshaw; Buddhist Perspectives
2.2 Moderate moral liberalism
Moderate deontologism (Kantianism): Immanuel Kant, John Rawls
Moderate consequentialism (pragmatism): John Dewey, William James