The consideration of normative ethics and methodology is a relatively recent
phenomena in Catholic moral theology. Similar to any nascent discussion, having
adopted terms and concepts from one conceptual genre, Britisch-analytic
philosophy, into a radically other genre, Catholic moral theology, one then
needs to begin the work of clarifying how, and to what extent, those terms and
concepts contribute to the overall project of moral theology as a science. As
Pope John Paul II´s encyclical Veritatis Splendor attests, this incorporation
has met with a great deal of resistance based on misunderstandings of the
nature and purpose of normative ethics and methodology. Deontology and
Teleology is a pioneer account which exposes and clarifies many of the
terminological and conceptual ambiguities inherent to this discussion. It
begins with an investigation of C.D. Broad´s meta-ethical division of theories
into deontology and teleology, and the epistemological/ontological foundations
on which he established this division. An analysis of how and why Broad´s
theory has been incorporated into Catholic discussions on the foundation and
formulation of norms along with the inherent difficulties of such an
incorporation is then taken up. Finally, this study argues and substantiates
through detailed historical analysis that a fundamental difference between
traditionalists and revisionists in their relative perspectives on norms rest
in the traditional understanding and moral evaluation of the human act,
specifically, the objectum, circumstantiae and finis (fontes moralitates). This
is an indispensable resource work for those interested in fundamental moral
theology and lays the foundation for pursuingfurther the complex question of
normative ethics in Catholic moral theology (Peeters 1995)
