An Engineers Synthesis of Ethical Theory

Moral theory, like much of philosophy, is a competition of ideas pursued to their logical ends. The way to make a name in philosophy is to concoct a plausible theory and pursue its logical consequences wherever they lead. It is much rarer to see philosophers integrate disparate theories into a consistent whole. 

Engineers, by contrast, are constantly faced with physical theories that apply at different length and time scales, and they must make sense of them and know when to apply which theory to what situation. Perhaps the situation in philosophy should be viewed similarly. That is, perhaps different forms of philosophical argument should be applied in different circumstances. In particular, perhaps ethical theory should be viewed in dynamic systems terms, and different modes of philosophical thought should be considered in terms of when they came to be applied and how that mode of thought interacted with other beliefs about ethical matters. 

Consider the following major categories of ethical thought  

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