Charity as a Foundation of Ethics

It seems to me that the greatest contribution which Christianity has made to the history of ethics is its claim that what we should do, above all else, is love—love everyone with no exceptions. It is strange to me that this insight has generally not survived in contemporary ethics. Though our dominant ethical theories always mention love at some point, they seldom give it the seat of honor. This dissertation, then, is an argument that they should: that our ethical theories, secular ones included, should be founded on love. Perhaps that sounds like a strange suggestion. (You may say, "Are you suggesting that contractualism, for example, should be founded on love? Well… it isn't. If it were it would not be contractualism.") The structure of my argument therefore begins with some remarks on ethics as a project. Why might it be the sort of thing that is best approached with the tools of charity? I then turn to an example—one possible ethics of charity (and quite a compelling one, in my view), borrowed largely from Thomas Aquinas. Finally, I employ this Thomistic theory to the issue of forgiveness and correction, as a way of showing how such a theory works itself out in application. The hope is that the overall picture is one on which the ethical-theoretical utility of love is clearly on display.

Grantor dc:publisher

Florida State University

Year dc:date

2024

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sigourney, Tucker (author)
• Westlund, Andrea C. (Andrea Carol) (professor directing dissertation)
• Kelsay, John, 1953- (university representative)
• Clarke, Randolph K. (committee member)
• LeBar, Mark (committee member)
• Schwenkler, John Louis (committee member)
• Florida State University (degree granting institution)
• College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college)
• Department of Philosophy (degree granting department)

• Ethics

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

fsu:928074
iid: Sigourney_fsu_0071E_18649

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:diginole.lib.fsu.edu:fsu_928074