MORAL REASONING

By ""moral reasoning"" Mr. Beardsmore means the intellectual process by which men seek to justify their moral judgments, and it is his aim in this book to clarify what is involved in that process. In the first section of the work, he maintains that if moral argument is to be a strictly rational activity, then there must be some clear concept of what may count as a relevant consideration; but he rejects the notion that that concept must be as strict or as well defined as traditional moral philosophers would have one believe. In the second section, he pursues and develops this line of argument by examining the role which reason must play in moral arguments, emphasizing that, while such arguments are not subject to the same rules as empirical arguments, they can be significant only within the framework of certain governing traditions. 'What Mr. Beardsmore does, in effect, is to take a few basic steps in establishing a morality common to men of all culture and all faiths, one based on reason rather than, on expediency or tradition or bias. That he does so logically, rationally, and without unnecessary polemicism, deserves the attention of moral philosophers of all faiths, or of no faith.