Common Morality: Deciding What to Do

by Bernard Gert

Moral problems do not always come in the form of great social controversies. More often, the moral decisions we make are made quietly, constantly, and within the context of everyday activities and quotidian dilemmas. Indeed, these smaller decisions are based on a moral foundation that few of us ever stop to think about but which guides our every action.

Here distinguished philosopher Bernard Gert presents a clear and concise introduction to what he calls "common morality"--the moral system that most thoughtful people implicitly use when making everyday, common sense moral decisions and judgments. Common Morality is useful in that--while not resolving every disagreement on controversial issues--it is able to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable answers to moral problems.

Genres: Philosophy

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Kramer Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are basically two goals of Gert's book: list a lot of observations about how people make moral and normative judgements, and defend why this system of judgement-making is basically justified. I think that he succeeded in the first of his goals, but (of course) I'm not so sure about the second. I will note that, regarding his defence of this system of judgement-making, the concepts he uses generally intertwine and are nicely mutually supporting. But it is hard to really evaluate this system given how brief is its defence (about 70 pages).

My main problem with the book is that it was presented as if it were gospel. Perhaps this approach is necessitated by the length of the book, but I would have much preferred an argumentative style that engaged contradicting views.

Also, I don't find lists of how people make judgements very interesting.

Overall, this may have been worth reading, but it is hard to say. I'll probably have to read Gert's Morality: Its Nature and Justification to have any reasonable idea of how good his normative theory really is.

[Dave]

good

Spoiler alert: there's a lot of morality

[sasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh