As attorney general of New York, Mr. Spitzer cast the legal fight in stark moral terms, arguing that Mr. Grasso, motivated by greed, plundered the then nonprofit stock exchange for his own benefit.
The good-reasons philosophers thus began to examine normative discourse, in general, and moral discourse, in particular, as a whole rather than exploring only the uniquely moral terms embedded in that discourse.
In general, the approach represents a reaction against the positivism of the 1930s and '40s, which, in its theory that moral terms have only emotive meaning, tended to support ethical relativism, subjectivism, and skepticism.
But in moral terms it is unambiguous.
He couched his speech in moral terms.
Other observers cited a general moral collapse of modern society.
That report, by the inspector general for tax administration at the Treasury Department, irritated Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who often talks about taxes in moral terms.
"You should judge this operation in moral terms.
Cloaking taxes in moral terms is not new.
