Prima Facie Duties Correlated With Ethical Theories

Slight Revision September 18, 2002

W. D. Ross' seven prima facie duties and the three other prima facie duties
introduced in the web page on the prima facie duties approach did not
just fall from the sky. Most of them are taken from principles that, at one
time or another, have been proposed as the central obligation in the moral life.

If instead we start out from a theory that lists these prima facie duties,
the other various ethical theories could be understood as elaborating one
or more of the prima facie rules from a particular perspective. The table below
shows how several of the prima facie duties can be correlated with those ethical theories.

Note: Some theories may be narrower in focus than the corresponding
prima facie duty. Utilitarianism, for instance, favors promotion of pleasure or
preference satisfaction, and aims to prevent pain or dissatisfaction, but it does
not regard things like virtue or knowledge as goods in themselves or moral vice
or ignorance as evils in themselves.