Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:34:02.255Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ethical Naturalism and the Justification of Claims about Human Form

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2016

JESSY JORDAN
JESSY JORDAN*
Affiliation:
Mount St. Mary’s University
*
*<jordan@msmary.edu>
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent defenders of Philippa Foot, such as Michael Thompson and John Hacker-Wright, have argued that it is a mistake to think that Foot aims to justify a substantive conception of human soundness and defect. Instead, she relies on the acceptance of certain groundless moral norms to underwrite her views about what is characteristically human. I maintain that this is a weakness and that the Footian-style proponent of natural normativity needs to provide a story about how we might achieve justified self-confidence regarding moral norms. In this paper, I offer a coherentist model for doing so, thereby addressing the justification gap.

Des défenseurs récents de Philippa Foot, comme Michael Thompson et John Hacker-Wright, ont affirmé qu’il est faux de penser que Foot vise à justifier une conception substantielle ce qui est sain ou défectueux dans l’être humain. La conception de Foot repose plutôt sur l’acceptation de certaines normes morales dénuées de fondement afin de soutenir ses vues sur ce qui est typiquement humain. Je maintiens qu’il s’agit là d’une faiblesse, et que ceux qui suivent le raisonnement de Foot sur la normativité naturelle doivent expliquer comment on pourrait atteindre une confiance en soi justifiée en ce qui concerne les normes morales. Dans cet article, je propose un modèle cohérentiste pour y parvenir, ce qui me conduit à aborder l’écart de justification.

Keywords

ethical naturalismhuman life formnatural normativityNeo-AristotelianismNeurathian justification
Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 467 - 492
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andreou, Chrisoula 2009 “Getting on in a Varied World.” Social Theory and Practice 32 (1): 61–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aristotle 1999 Nicomachean Ethics. Irwin, Terence (Trans.). Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Engel, Mylan Jr. 2012 “Coherentism and the Epistemic Justification of Moral Beliefs: A Case Study in How to Do Practical Ethics Without Appeal to a Moral Theory.” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 50 (1): 50–74.Google Scholar
Ewing, A.C. 1934 Idealism: A Critical Survey. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Foot, Philippa 2001 Natural Goodness. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hacker-Wright, John 2009 “What Is Natural about Foot’s Ethical Naturalism?” Ratio 22 (3): 308–321.Google Scholar
Hacker-Wright, John 2012 “Ethical Naturalism and the Constitution of Agency.” Journal of Value Inquiry 46 (1): 13–23.Google Scholar
Hursthouse, Rosalind 1999 On Virtue Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kraut, Richard 2006 “How to Justify Ethical Propositions: Aristotle’s Method.” In The Blackwell Guide to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair 1984 After Virtue. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair 1988 Whose Justice? Which Rationality? Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair 1990 Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopaedia, Genealogy, and Tradition. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair 2002 “Virtues in Foot and Geach.” The Philosophical Quarterly 52 (209): 621–631.Google Scholar
McDowell, John 1998a “Some Issues in Aristotle’s Moral Psychology.” In Mind, Value, and Reality. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McDowell, John 1998b “Two Sorts of Naturalism.” In Mind, Value, and Reality. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McDowell, John 2009 “Eudaimonism and Realism in Aristotle’s Ethics.” In The Engaged Intellect. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McKeon, Richard (Ed.) 2001 “Topica.” In The Basic Works of Aristotle. New York: The Modern Library.Google Scholar
Mill, John Stuart 2002 Utilitarianism. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Millgram, Elijah 2009 “Life and Action.” Analysis 69 (3): 557–564.Google Scholar
Murphy, Mark 2011 “The Natural Law Tradition in Ethics.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed September 9, 2016. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/natural-law-ethics/.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich 1989 Beyond Good and Evil. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich 1998 On the Genealogy of Morality. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.Google Scholar
Olsson, Erik 2012 “Coherentist Theories of Epistemic Justification.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed July 2016. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justep-coherence/.Google Scholar
Plato, 1997 Plato: Complete Works. Cooper, John M. (Ed.). Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Quine, W.V.O. 2003 “Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis.” In From a Logical Point of View. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sayer-McCord, Geoffrey 2013 “Coherentism and the Justification of Moral Beliefs.” In Ethical Theory: An Anthology. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Slote, Michael 2003 “Review: Natural Goodness.” Mind 112 (445): 130–139.Google Scholar
Thompson, Michael Nd. “Forms of nature: ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘living’, ‘rational’ and ‘phronetic,’” Academia.edu. Accessed September 9, 2016. https://www.academia.edu/9666637/Forms_of_nature_first_second_living_rational_and_phronetic.Google Scholar
Thompson, Michael 1995 “The Representation of Life.” In Virtues and Reasons: Philippa Foot and Moral Theory. Hursthouse, Rosalind, Lawrence, Gavin, and Quinn, Warren (Eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Michael 2003 “Three Degrees of Natural Goodness.” Originally in Italian in Iride. Accessed September 9, 2016. http://www.pitt.edu/∼mthompso/three.pdf.Google Scholar
Thompson, Michael 2004 “Apprehending Human Form.” In Modern Moral Philosophy. O’Hear, Anthony (Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Michael 2008 Life and Action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Toner, Christopher 2008 “Sorts of Naturalism: Requirements for a Successful Theory.” Metaphilosophy 39 (2): 220–250.Google Scholar
Wilson, Margot 2005 “Foreword.” In Who’s Afraid of Charles Darwin: Debating Feminism and Evolutionary Theory. Lanham: Roman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Woodcock, Scott 2015 “Neo-Aristotelian Naturalism and the Indeterminacy Objection.” International Journal of Philosophical Studies 23 (1): 20–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodcock, Scott 2006 “Philippa Foot’s Virtue Ethics Has an Achilles’ Heel.” Dialogue 45 (3): 445–468.Google Scholar