What makes an act right or wrong, good or bad? Is moral "rightness" and "wrongness" built into the fabric of reality in the same way as are mathematical truths? Is God good because God desires this built-in moral goodness? Or is what is "right" by definition whatever God wills or desires?

Since the universe is the manifestation of God's creative will, can we discover God's desire for us by studying ourselves and the creation around us ("natural law")?

Can an act's "rightness" or "wrongness" ever be determined by the consequences it leads to?

We studies these and other issues in general ethics from May 1, 2005 to Aug 14, 2005, and also began to tackle some problems in applied ethics. Presentations were by David Monyak.

Downloads: Presentations

References

An Introduction to Christian Ethics (4th Edition), Roger H. Crook. Prentice Hall, 2001. ISBN: 0-130-34149-5

Basic Moral Philosophy, Third Edition, Robert L. Holmes. Thomson Wadsworth, 2003. ISBN 0-534-58477-2

Christian Ethics. An Introduction. Edited by Bernard Hoose. Liturgical Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8146-5929-2

Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy), Harry J. Gensler, Routledge, 1998. ISBN: 0-415-15625-4

Ethics: Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition, Jacques P. Thiroux. Prentice Hall; 2003. ISBN: 0-131-83002-3

How Should We Live? An Introduction to Ethics, Louis P. Pojman, Wadsworth Publishing, 2004. ISBN: 0-534-55657-4

Introduction to Moral Theology, Romanus Cessario. Catholic University of America Press, 2001. ISBN: 0-813-21070-4

The Catholic Moral Tradition Today: A Synthesis (Moral Traditions and Moral Arguments Series), Charles E. Curran. Georgetown University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0-878-40717-0

The Moral Quest: Foundations of Christian Ethics, Stanley J. Grenz. InterVarsity Press, 2000. ISBN: 0-830-81568-6