Modern Moral Philosophy was an influential article on moral philosophy by G. E. M. Anscombe

G. E. M. Anscombe

Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe , better known as Elizabeth Anscombe, was a British analytic philosopher from Ireland. A student of Ludwig Wittgenstein, she became an authority on his work and edited and translated many books drawn from his writings, above all his Philosophical Investigations...

, originally published in the journal Philosophy

Philosophy (journal)

Philosophy is the scholarly journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. It is designed to be intelligible to the non-specialist reader and has been in continuous publication for over 80 years. It is published by Cambridge University Press and is currently edited by Anthony O'Hear.-See also:* ...

, vol. 33, no. 124 (January 1958).

The article has influenced the emergence of contemporary virtue ethics

Virtue ethics

Virtue ethics describes the character of a moral agent as a driving force for ethical behavior, rather than rules , consequentialism , or social context .The difference between these four approaches to morality tends to lie more in the way moral dilemmas are...

, especially through the work of Alasdair MacIntyre

Alasdair MacIntyre

Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre is a British philosopher primarily known for his contribution to moral and political philosophy but known also for his work in history of philosophy and theology...

. Notably, the term "consequentialism

Consequentialism

Consequentialism is the class of normative ethical theories holding that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness of that conduct...

" was first defined in this paper.

Theses

The author presents three theses:

1. "It is not profitable for us at present to do moral philosophy; that should be laid aside at any rate until we have an adequate philosophy of psychology, in which we are conspicuously lacking."

2. "Concepts of obligation, and duty — moral obligation and moral duty, that is to say — and of what is morally right and wrong, and of the moral sense of "ought," ought to be jettisoned if this is psychologically possible; because they are survivals, or derivatives from survivals, from an earlier conception of ethics which no longer generally survives, and are only harmful without it."

3. "The differences between the well‑known English writers on moral philosophy from Sidgwick to the present day are of little importance."

Sources

• Full text of 'Modern Moral Philosophy'
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Further reading

• Virtue Ethics, edited by Roger Crisp and Michael Slote, Oxford, 1997. ISBN 0198751893
• Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue
  After Virtue
  After Virtue is a book on moral philosophy by Alasdair MacIntyre. MacIntyre provides a bleak view of the state of modern moral discourse, regarding it as failing to be rational, and failing to admit to being irrational. He claims that older forms of moral discourse were in better shape,...
  
  : A Study in Moral Theory, London, 1985 (2nd ed.). ISBN 0268006113.
• Expository essay discussing the interpretation of "Modern Moral Philosophy"