A Study On W.D. Ross's Moral Theory Of Deontology Intuitionism

Sir. William David Ross(1877—1971) was a famous moralist in contemporary western society, being a leading scholar of Intuitionism in meta-ethics. His works of translating and interpreting the Aristotle's works was recognized a typical version. His moral theory originated from the moral theory of Moore's and Prichard's, who both were the famous scholars in Intuitionism. However, differing from Moore's moral theory of axiology intuitionism and Prichard's moral theory of extreme deontology intuitionism, Ross's moral theory was called "a soft deontology intuitionism ethics", mainly because he tried to solve the differences between Moore's moral theory and Prichard's. As Moore was a professor in Cambridge University, while Prichard was a professor in Oxford University, so Ross's moral theory was called "Ox-bridge" theory.Generally, Ross's moral theory was classified into Deontology, which differed from traditional Deontology, one of which Kant was a famous moralist. The traditional Deontology emphasized finding out the final criterion of determining whether a moral action was right or not, that is, the criterion is unique. However, such attempt was in vain.In such circumstance, Ross put forward a new moral theory of Normative Ethics in order to solve such problems, which couldn't be solved by Kant's moral theory of deontology and Utilitarianism. It was his famous moral theory of "prima facie duty".My thesis consists of following parts:In part one, we discussed Moore's moral theory of axiology intuitionism,Prichard's moral theory of extreme deontology intuitionism and Kant's moral theory of deontology briefly. By discussing Ross's developing the useful and discarding the useless of them, we pointed out the origin of Ross's moral theory.In part two, we interpreted the main contents of Ross's methodology of intuitionism by reviewing the history of methodology of intuitionism.In part three, we mainly discussed the contents of Ross's moral theory on the basis of reading two works of his. And we explained his moral theory of "prima facie duty" in detail.In part four, we demonstrated the contribution of Ross's moral theory, and mainly discussed the inspiration and influence of the theory of "prima facie duty" on contemporary ethics in western society.Ross's moral theory marked the end of Intuitionism and thriving of Emotionalism. A study on Ross's moral theory will give us a better understanding of Intuitionism and will give use for reference for the study on Meta-ethics in our country.