The Limits of Ethical Disagreement: a Davidsonian Approach to Ethics

The Limits of Ethical Disagreement: a Davidsonian Approach to Ethics
Author: Brian Alan Rockwood
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2008
Genre: Electronic dissertations
ISBN:

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In this dissertation I draw upon Donald Davidson's theories of language and the mental in order to argue that it is impossible for an agent to hold ethical beliefs that are, when taken as a whole, radically different than one's own. This argument starts with Davidson's theory that beliefs, desires and other mental objects are theoretical entities that are attributed to speakers in order to make sense of their intentional actions. These attributions must be made in accordance with the principle of charity and, as such, it is impossible for an agent to have a set of beliefs and desires that are radically different from those of the interpreter. The trick is to show that there are limitations on how much disagreement is possible with a subset of the speaker's beliefs. In order to do this I stress the importance of holism within Davidson's theory of meaning. One result of his holism is that a belief gets its content from its connections to other beliefs in the belief net. Hence, changes in one belief create a ripple effect which changes the contents of related beliefs. Because of this effect, in order for two people to have the same belief they must have similar beliefs throughout their belief nets local to that belief. When combined with an argument about the interrelated nature of ethical beliefs we can conclude that in order for a speaker to hold any ethical belief they must share a number of ethical beliefs with the interpreter. What this does not illuminate is how much agreement is necessary. In order to get a handle on this I turned to the arguments presented in Philippa Foot's â€Moral Beliefs†and Bernard Williams' â€The Truth in Relativism.†I argue that the eccentric that Foot presents is an example of a speaker who attempts to present a theory of ethics that is simply too different to be considered an ethical theory. Finally, I consider the distinction Williams' makes between real confrontation and notational confrontation as a possible guideline for where real ethical disagreement begins to break apart.

Davidson's Philosophy and Chinese Philosophy

Davidson's Philosophy and Chinese Philosophy
Author: Bo Mou
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2006-03-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9047409213

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This anthology investigates how, through critical engagement, Davidson’s philosophy and Chinese philosophy can jointly contribute to the common philosophical enterprise and shows how such comparative methodology of constructive engagement is important or even indispensable in general philosophical inquiry.

Debunking Arguments in Ethics

Debunking Arguments in Ethics
Author: Hanno Sauer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2018-07-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1108423698

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Offers the first book-length discussion of debunking arguments in ethics and the reliability of moral judgment.

Common Grounds Without Foundations

Common Grounds Without Foundations
Author: David Kratz Mathies
Publisher: Gorgias PressLlc
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2014-12-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781607240426

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In Common Grounds without Foundations, David Kratz Mathies offers an alternative, fallibilist model of moral reasoning rooted in the American Pragmatic tradition. Additional resources drawn from Chinese philosophy, Jain epistemology, modern philosophy of mathematics, and the Gadamerian hermeneutical tradition serve both to corroborate the argumentation and to provide examples of continuities in reasoning that cross the boundaries of disparate traditions. Ironically, the very success of arguments for the tradition-dependent nature of rationality belies their conclusions-even religious claims make their appeal with some level of public reason-and a nonfoundationalist theory of knowledge more accurately reflects both our scientific progress and our projects of everyday enquiry. Ultimately, an analysis of our best epistemic practices provides us with prima facie biases in favor of both diversity and free speech (without the need to appeal to any tradition-dependent axioms like inherent worth, human dignity, or the possession of a soul)-to be concretized in institutions like human rights and democracy.

Discourse and Knowledge

Discourse and Knowledge
Author: Janna Thompson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2002-03-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134666586

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Ethical disagreement is a fact of social life. We disagree about issues such as abortion, euthanasia, the meaning of justice and the treatment of animals, and our debates often fail to reach a consensus. Some philosophers think that this means there is no objective knowledge about morality. Discourse and Knowledge takes a radically different approach to the defence of ethical rationality. It claims that there is a correct solution to ethical controversies, but that ethical decisions have to be made collectively. Written specifically for those studying or teaching ethics or moral theory,Discourse and Knowledge will also be ideal for those on courses on social theory, ethics or feminist philosophy.

Moral Disagreement and Shared Meaning

Moral Disagreement and Shared Meaning
Author: David Allen Merli
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2003
Genre: Ethics
ISBN:

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Appendix: In order to have genuine disagreement, interlocutors must share terms, meanings, and concepts. Without this, their dispute is merely verbal; it rests on linguistic confusion. This is true of all conversation, but many philosophers have thought that moral discourse poses special problems. Moral discourse seems to contain intractable disagreements and lacks the sorts of authority and deference relations that are typical in straightforward empirical disagreement. This yields a potent philosophical puzzle: how is it that moral evaluators can share a subject matter while thinking such different things? I argue that noncognitivist attempts to make sense of disagreement fail. The noncognitivist is obliged to provide an account of the mental states at work in moral discourse. These accounts either fail to identify a distinct species of moral evaluation, or to provide for genuine incompatibility between competing moral judgments, or to avoid circularity. Thus one of the most important motivations for noncognitivist accounts is undermined. I show how naturalistic moral realism can be defended against popular arguments against its ability to make sense of univocity. This criticism has been revived in recent work by Terence Horgan and Mark Timmons. I develop three objections to their so-called "Moral Twin Earth" argument, and conclude that it has no force against moral realism. I then show that naturalistic realism faces a different problem accounting for univocity. This problem results from the fact that the path of moral inquiry is underdetermined: there is no fact of the matter about the referents of speakers' terms. I argue that common realistic appeals to the resolution of moral dispute are not sufficient, because they fail to note a distinction between different readings of the convergence claim. The most plausible ways of understanding that claim are of no help to the realist's semantic requirements. Finally, I consider a rejoinder suggested by recent work in the philosophy of language. Though not compatible with realism's moral semantics, this rejoinder suggests that moral and non-moral language are on a par. I offer some reasons for doubting this claim, and suggest that moralizing poses unique interpretive challenges.

Ethical Argument

Ethical Argument
Author: Hugh Mercer Curtler
Publisher: Paragon House Publishers
Total Pages: 184
Release: 1993
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781557785138

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This book teaches students about argument in ethics by involving them in an ethical argument about relativism. The book argues against relativism and encourages students to question assumptions and present counter-arguments. The book also stresses basic ethical principles and includes a chapter with numerous cases for discussion. An excellent teaching tool!

Ethical disagreement

Ethical disagreement
Author: Mitchell Vines
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1986
Genre: Ethics, Modern
ISBN:

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