Project Gutenberg 2009-09-06 Public domain in the USA. 93 Thornton, William Thomas 1813 1880 09033061 Old-Fashioned Ethics and Common-Sense Metaphysics With Some of Their Applications E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team "Old-Fashioned Ethics and Common-Sense Metaphysics" by William Thomas Thornton is a philosophical treatise written in the late 19th century. The work delves into ethical principles and metaphysical inquiries, focusing particularly on common-sense approaches to understanding morality, duty, and the human condition. Thornton critiques utilitarianism, exploring the implications of pleasure as the primary object of ethical consideration, while emphasizing the importance of virtue and duty as central to a moral framework. The opening of this thought-provoking work sets the stage for a critical examination of utilitarianism, presenting it as a doctrine that reduces morality to the pursuit of pleasure while failing to account for deeper ethical obligations. Thornton begins by laying out the tenets of utilitarianism and then proceeds to challenge its core tenets through a series of moral dilemmas and thought experiments, arguing that true virtue often requires self-denial and prioritizing the welfare of others over one's own enjoyment. He posits that morality transcends mere utility and calls for a return to ethical principles rooted in duty and virtue, suggesting that a rich moral life cannot be reduced to the pursuit of individual happiness. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Utilitarianism Metaphysics BJ Text Browsing: Philosophy & Ethics Browsing: Religion/Spirituality/Paranormal 631402 631240 2024-09-12T16:31:30.229780 2023-09-13T08:22:24.958883 text/html text/html 638461 2009-09-06T14:56:41 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 223104 2009-09-06T14:58:17 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 299685 2024-09-12T16:31:39.363724 application/epub+zip 304796 2024-09-12T16:31:32.452761 application/epub+zip 304796 2024-09-12T16:31:31.192788 application/epub+zip 618117 2024-09-12T16:31:44.625724 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 568942 2024-09-12T16:31:38.185796 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 407376 2022-09-14T03:35:32.106988 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 569839 569748 2024-09-12T16:31:29.232741 2023-09-13T08:22:24.036867 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 569583 2009-09-06T14:54:53 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 210575 2009-09-06T14:54:53 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 569617 2009-09-06T14:54:53 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 210444 2009-09-06T14:54:53 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 20243 2024-09-12T16:31:44.771655 application/rdf+xml 24408 2024-09-12T16:31:31.561758 image/jpeg 4907 2024-09-12T16:31:31.376756 image/jpeg 287047 2024-09-12T16:31:30.283766 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia