Chapter 1 - Naturalism in moral philosophy

Summary

Narrow and wide conceptions of philosophy and philosophical method

Naturalism in philosophy is a special case of a more general conception of philosophy. In this conception there is no special philosophical method and no special philosophical subject matter.

Consider some of the ways in which philosophy interacts with and is continuous with other disciplines.

Aesthetics is obviously pursued in philosophy departments and in departments of literature, music and art. Monro Beardsley, who wrote the most important survey of aesthetics in the twentieth century, was one of the authors of an important statement of a central aspect of the “New Criticism.”

More recently, Richard Wollheim (who may have invented the expression “minimal art”) and Arthur Danto have had a significant influence on art theory and criticism. They themselves have been important critics. Alexander Nehamas is another important contemporary example.

Anthropology. Anthropologists are often involved with philosophy and philosophers have sometimes acted as anthropologists to study the moralities of one or another culture. Richard Brandt lived with the Hopi in order to study their ethics. John Ladd lived with the Navaho in order to study their ethics. The anthropologist Dan Sperber is the same person as the philosopher Dan Sperber.