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Is Utilitarianism a Scientific Morality?

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Human Nature and the Limits of Darwinism
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Abstract

Moral naturalists have also tried a different strategy; rather than debunk objective ethics, some have argued that a utilitarian ethics is the only moral system consistent with a scientific or naturalist worldview. In this chapter, we examine the arguments for this claim and demonstrate why they fail. It is argued that precisely what is missing in the utilitarian theory is a recognition of a transcendental goal of ethics, the idea of an objective moral goal that is the guiding aim of human life.

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Kaufman, W.R.P. (2016). Is Utilitarianism a Scientific Morality?. In: Human Nature and the Limits of Darwinism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59288-0_6

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