Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics

Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics PDF Author: David Owen Brink
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521359375
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 394

Get Book Here

Book Description
A systematic analysis considers the objectivity of ethics, the relationship between the moral point of view and a scientific or naturalist worldview and its role in a person's rational lifespan.

Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics

Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics PDF Author: David Owen Brink
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521359375
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 394

Get Book Here

Book Description
A systematic analysis considers the objectivity of ethics, the relationship between the moral point of view and a scientific or naturalist worldview and its role in a person's rational lifespan.

Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics

Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics PDF Author: David Owen Brink
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521350808
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is a systematic and constructive treatment of a number of traditional issues at the foundations of ethics. These issues concern the objectivity of ethics, the possibility and nature of moral knowledge, the relationship between the moral point of view and a scientific or naturalist world-view, the nature of moral value and obligation, and the role of morality in a person's rational lifeplan. In striking contrast to traditional and more recent work in the field, David Brink offers an integrated defense of the objectivity of ethics.

Foundations for Moral Relativism

Foundations for Moral Relativism PDF Author: J. David Velleman
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 1783740329
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this new edition of Foundations for Moral Relativism a distinguished moral philosopher tames a bugbear of current debate about cultural difference. J. David Velleman shows that different communities can indeed be subject to incompatible moralities, because their local mores are rationally binding. At the same time, he explains why the mores of different communities, even when incompatible, are still variations on the same moral themes. The book thus maps out a universe of many moral worlds without, as Velleman puts it, "moral black holes”. The six self-standing chapters discuss such diverse topics as online avatars and virtual worlds, lying in Russian and truth-telling in Quechua, the pleasure of solitude and the fear of absurdity. Accessibly written, this book presupposes no prior training in philosophy.

Real Ethics

Real Ethics PDF Author: John M. Rist
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521006088
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 310

Get Book Here

Book Description
This 2001 book is a powerful defence of an ethical theory based on a revised version of Platonic realism.

Essays on Moral Realism

Essays on Moral Realism PDF Author: Geoffrey Sayre-McCord
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801495410
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book Here

Book Description
This collection of influential essays illustrates the range, depth, and importance of moral realism, the fundamental issues it raises, and the problems it faces.

Moral Realism

Moral Realism PDF Author: Russ Shafer-Landau
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780199280209
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book Here

Book Description
Moral Realism is a systematic defence of the idea that there are objective moral standards. In the tradition of Plato and G. E. Moore, Russ Shafer-Landau argues that there are moral principles that are true independently of what anyone, anywhere, happens to think of them. These principles are a fundamental aspect of reality, just as much as those that govern mathematics or the natural world. They may be true regardless of our ability to grasp them, and their truth is not a matter of theirbeing ratified from any ideal standpoint, nor of being the object of actual or hypothetical consensus, nor of being an expression of our rational nature. Shafer-Landau accepts Plato's and Moore's contention that moral truths are sui generis. He rejects the currently popular efforts to conceive of ethics as a kind of science, and insists that moral truths and properties occupy a distinctive area in our ontology. Unlike scientific truths, the fundamental moral principles are knowable a priori. And unlike mathematical truths, they are essentially normative: intrinsically action-guiding, and supplying a justification for all who follow their counsel. Moral Realism is the first comprehensive treatise defending non-naturalistic moral realism in over a generation. It ranges over all of the central issues in contemporary metaethics, and will be an important source of discussion for philosophers and their students interested in issues concerning the foundations of ethics.

Plato's Moral Realism

Plato's Moral Realism PDF Author: John M. Rist
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813219809
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Get Book Here

Book Description
Surveying many of Plato's dialogues from the early, middle, and late periods, prominent philosopher John M. Rist shows how Plato gradually came to realize the need for metaphysics to support his ethical position and that a rigorous ethics required a secure metaphysics grounded in universal values.

Morality Without Foundations

Morality Without Foundations PDF Author: Mark Timmons
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019511731X
Category : Ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book Here

Book Description
Morality Without Foundations investigates fundamental metaethical questions about the meaning, truth, and justification of moral thought and discourse. Mark Timmons maintains that all versions of descriptivism in ethics, particularly certain accounts of moral realism, fail. He argues instead that a correct metaethical theory should embrace some version of non-descriptivism. Timmons defends what he calls "assertoric non-descriptivism" which, unlike traditional non-descriptivist views, holds that moral sentences are typically used to make genuine assertions. In defending this view, he exploits contextual semantics, providing him with the semantic flexibility to develop an irrealist account of moral discourse. Timmons goes on to support a contextualist moral epistemology, completing his overall version of contextualism in ethics. Like his foundationalist rivals, Timmons recognizes that there are moral beliefs that are epistemically basic in providing a basis for the justification of non-basic moral beliefs. Yet, he agrees with the coherentist in maintaining that there are no intrinsically justified beliefs that can serve as a single foundation for a system of moral knowledge. Timmons ultimately finds that regresses of justification of moral belief end with contextually basic beliefs--moral beliefs which, in the relevant context, are responsibly held, but in other contexts might not be suitable as regress stoppers. Timmons' novel defense of morality without foundations offers provocative reading for philosophers working in the areas of ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics. Yet, written with the student in mind, his lucid presentation of difficult ideas makes this book accessible to students and newcomers to the field of metaethics.

Commitment, Value, and Moral Realism

Commitment, Value, and Moral Realism PDF Author: Marcel S. Lieberman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521631114
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
Despite the importance of commitment in moral and political philosophy, there has hitherto been little extended analysis of it. Marcel Lieberman examines the conditions under which commitment is possible, and offers at the same time an indirect argument for moral realism. He argues that realist evaluative beliefs are functionally required for commitment - especially regarding its role in self-understanding - and since it is only within a realist framework that such beliefs make sense, realism about values is a condition for the possibility of commitment itself. His ambitious study addresses questions that are of great interest to analytic philosophers but also makes many connections with continental philosophy and with folk psychology, sociology and cognitive science, and will be seen as a distinctive intervention in the debate about moral realism.

Moral Vision

Moral Vision PDF Author: David McNaughton
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9780631159452
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book introduces the reader to ethics by examining a current and important debate. During the last fifty years the orthodox position in ethics has been a broadly non-cognitivist one: since there are no moral facts, moral remarks are best understood, not as attempting to describe the world, but as having some other function - such as expressing the attitudes or preferences of the speaker. In recent years this position has been increasingly challenged by moral realists who maintain that there are moral facts; there is a truth of the matter in ethics, which is independent of our views, and which we seek to discover. Unfortunately much of this interesting debate found in the work of McDowell, Wiggins, Putnam, Blackburn and others is not easily accessible to undergraduates. McNaughton presents many of the major issues in ethics by way of a clear exposition of both sides of this argument and assumes no prior knowledge of philosophy. Topics discussed include: moral observation, moral motivation, amoralism and wickedness, moral weakness, cultural relativism and utilitarianism. The book concludes that a convincing case can be made out for a radical form of moral realism in which moral virtue is found, not in the following of correct moral principles, but rather in the development of moral sensitivity. Moral Vision is a clear and engaged introduction to an important, and often troubling, debate.