Read Mill, for an introduction to the basics of consequentialism.
Read Kant, for an introduction to the basics of deontology.
Read up some more recent work which tries to fix the problems of both. I don't off-hand remember anyone recent who tried to convincingly fix either system, so I don't have any handy references, but:
Read Kant, for an introduction to the basics of deontology.
Read up some more recent work which tries to fix the problems of both. I don't off-hand remember anyone recent who tried to convincingly fix either system, so I don't have any handy references, but:
Here's a much better overall introduction to morality: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/morality-definition/
After going through that, I recommend the author's book: http://www.amazon.com/Common-Morality-Deciding-What-Do/dp/01...