Explanations of moral failure

Abstract

This introductory chapter consists mainly of an account of the way I use the terms 'explanation', 'moral', and 'failure'. The explanations discussed feature in everyday life and are not grounded on scientific accounts of human personality and behaviour. The term 'moral' has a narrow and a broad application deriving from two types of moral code. On the narrow view moral failure is closely tied to wrong-doing, while on the broad view it arises from an insufficiency in what a person makes of his life as a whole. Both these types of failure will be discussed in the thesis, The failures with which I am concerned are restricted in two ways: (1) they cover only cases in which the agent tried or at least wanted to do what he failed to do; (2) they presuppose that the agent was able to do the deed in question. Some comments are made on the approach to Ethics employed in this thesis. It is maintained that a necessary preliminary to building a successful moral theory is the careful examination of actual moral experience, and accordingly this thesis is descriptive in its main emphasis. The chapter concludes with a brief account of the arrangement and structure of the thesis…