Post 1, Chapter 2: Schools of Ethical Thought

This, the second chapter of Ethics for the Information Age, is an explanation of several popular schools of ethical thought, including Subjective Relativism, Cultural Relativism, Divine Command Theory, Kantianism, Act Utilitarianism, Rule Utilitarianism and Social Contract Theory. For each of the schools of thought, the chapter goes through several arguments for and against, and for the latter schools, gives some examples of how they are used.

The chapter goes on to define an acceptable theory as one that "make it possible for a person to present a persuasive, logical argument to a diverse audience of skeptical, yet open-minded people." Because of this definition of an acceptable theory, Subjective Relativism, Cultural Relativism and Divine Command Theory are rejected. Only the latter four are considered "workable".