Background on Normative Ethics of Behavior

The fundamental project of the normative ethics of behavior is the attempt to discover, properly formulate, and defend a criterion of moral rightness for act tokens.

An act type is a repeatable kind of action; something that can be performed by different people at different
times and places.

An act token is a non-repeatable concrete individual action; something that is performed by just one person (the "agent"), on one occasion, and in one place.

An act token is morally right if and only if it is permissible, OK, allowed, possible to do, "all right",
acceptable from the point of view of morality.

D1. An act token, x, is morally wrong =df. it would not be morally right to perform x.

D2. An act token, x, is morally obligatory =df. it would not be morally right to fail to perform x.

D3. X is a necessary condition for moral rightness =df. if an act is morally right, then it satisfies X.

D4. X is a sufficient condition for moral rightness =df. if an act satisfies X, then that act is morally right.

D5. C is a criterion of morally right action =df. C is a statement of interesting necessary and
sufficient conditions for the moral rightness of act tokens.

Some examples:

10C: An act token, x, is morally right if and only if x does not violate any of the Ten Commandments.
(See Exodus 20:1-17)

The Golden Rule: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men
should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the
prophets." (Matthew 7:12)

GR: An act token, x, is morally right if and only if in doing x, the agent of x treats others as he/she
would have others treat himself/herself.

DCT: An act-token, A, is morally right if and only if A can be performed
without violating any of God's commands.

GHP: An act token, x, is morally right if and only if x leads to the greatest happiness of the greatest number.