Jan Narveson s Moral Matters - 1618 Words

Jan Narveson s Moral Matters plays an important, if controversial role in the field of applied ethics. Narveson s unique, contractarian approach analyzes ideas as diverse as suicide, abortion, sexual ethics and affirmative action. Amongst the more contentious aspects of the thoughts expressed in the book is his view of global poverty. Narveson extends foundationalist, anarcho-capitalist approach to this issue; arguing that while charity is morally virtuous, there is no moral obligation on the part of the global rich or developed nation to alleviate the global poor from their precarious position. He also argues that by continuing free trade, enough economic growth will occur to relieve the global poor regardless. *This essay will elaborate on Narveson s position on global povery and criticize said position in the following aspects; *it s counter intuitiveness*, *descent into skepticism or relativism* and a failure to account for the interconnectivity found in global financial institut ions, *capitalism* and climate change. Narveson s account of global poverty, begins with his views on the basis of ethics. Narvelson is a foundationalist, believing that we should search for fundamental moral truths, and deduce other principles from these core truths (Narveson, 20). While Narveson does not define himself as a relativist, he does hold that people s interests are subjective. By this he means that your values are fundamentally up to you as an individual (Narveson, 35).