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Series:   Elements in Ethics

Philippa Foot's Metaethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2021

John Hacker-Wright
John Hacker-Wright
Affiliation:
University of Guelph, Ontario

Summary

This Element presents an interpretation and defence of Philippa Foot's ethical naturalism. It begins with the often neglected grammatical method that Foot derives from an interpretation of Ludwig Wittgenstein's later philosophy. This method shapes her approach to understanding goodness as well as the role that she attributes to human nature in ethical judgment. Moral virtues understood as perfections of human powers are central to Foot's account of ethical judgment. The thrust of the interpretation offered here is that Foot's metaethics takes ethical judgment to be tied to our self-understanding as a sort of rational animal. Foot's metaethics thereby offers a compelling contemporary approach that preserves some of the best insights of the Aristotelian tradition in practical philosophy.
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Keywords

ethical naturalismmoral realismPhilippa Footvirtue ethicsnormativity
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Ethics
Online ISBN: 9781108634038
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 10 June 2021

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