This book presents a systematic survey of the basic normative factors and examines the competing theories about the foundations of normative ethics, theories that attempt to explain why the basic normative factors have the moral significance that they do.

NORMATIVE ETHICS examines an act's rightness or wrongness in light of such factors as consequences, harm, and consent. Intended for upper-level or graduate students of philosophy, this book should also appeal to the general reader looking for a clearly written overview of the basic principles of moral philosophy.