Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T02:42:05.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Principle of Sufficient Reason: a Moral Argument

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Mark T. Nelson
Mark T. Nelson
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Clarke/Rowe version of the Cosmological Argument is sound only if the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) is true, but many philosophers, including Rowe, think that there is not adequate evidence for the principle of sufficient reason. I argue that there may be indirect evidence for PSR on the grounds that if we do not accept it, we lose our best justification for an important principle of metaethics, namely, the Principle of Universalizability. To show this, I argue that all the other justifications of the Principle of Universalizability on offer, including Richard Hare's, are inadequate.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 15 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Craig, W. L. (1980). The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz (London: Macmillan).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gellner, E. A. (1954–1955). ‘Ethics and Logic’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 55, pp. 157–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, R. M. (1952). The Language of Morals (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Hare, R. M. (1963). Freedom and Reason (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Hare, R. M. (1954–1955). ‘Universalizability’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 55, pp. 295–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, R. M. (1981). Moral Thinking: Its Levels, Method, and Point (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, R. M. (1962). ‘Review of M. G. Singer, Generalization in Ethics’, Philosophical Quarterly 12, pp. 351–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, R. M. (1984). ‘Supervenience’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supp. Vol. 58, pp. 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackie, J. L. (1977). Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong (Harmondsworth: Penguin).Google Scholar
Moore, G. E. (1959). Principia Ethica (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Paton, H. J. (1948). The Moral Law (London: Hutchinson and Co.).Google Scholar
Plantinga, A. (1974). God, Freedom, and Evil (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. and Ullian, J. S. (1978). The Web of Belief, second edition (New York: Random House).Google Scholar
Rabinowicz, W. (1979). Universalizability (Dordrecht: Reidel).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowe, W. L. (1984). ‘Rationalistic Philosophy and Some Principles of Explanation’, Faith and Philosophy 1, pp. 357–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowe, W. L. (1978). Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth).Google Scholar
Rowe, W. L. (1975). The Cosmological Argument (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Singer, M. G. (1963). Generalization in Ethics (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode).Google Scholar
Warnock, G. J., (1967). Contemporary Moral Philosophy (London: Macmillan).CrossRefGoogle Scholar