Moral FictionalismClarendon Press, 2005 M04 14 - 193 páginas Moral realists maintain that morality has a distinctive subject matter. Specifically, realists maintain that moral discourse is representational, that moral sentences express moral propositions - propositions that attribute moral properties to things. Noncognitivists, in contrast, maintain that the realist imagery associated with morality is a fiction, a reification of our noncognitive attitudes. The thought that there is a distinctively moral subject matter is regarded as somethingto be debunked by philosophical reflection on the way moral discourse mediates and makes public our noncognitive attitudes. The realist fiction might be understood as a philosophical misconception of a discourse that is not fundamentally representational but whose intent is rather practical.There is, however, another way to understand the realist fiction. Perhaps the subject matter of morality is a fiction that stands in no need of debunking, but is rather the means by which our attitudes are conveyed. Perhaps moral sentences express moral propositions, just as the realist maintains, but in accepting a moral sentence competent speakers do not believe the moral proposition expressed but rather adopt the relevant non-cognitive attitudes. Noncognitivism, in its primary sense, is aclaim about moral acceptance: the acceptance of a moral sentence is not moral belief but is some other attitude. Standardly, non-cognitivism has been linked to non-factualism - the claim that the content of a moral sentence does not consist in its expressing a moral proposition. Indeed, the terms'noncognitivism' and 'nonfactualism' have been used interchangeably. But this misses an important possibility, since moral content may be representational but the acceptance of moral sentences might not be belief in the moral proposition expressed. This possibility constitutes a novel form of noncognitivism, moral fictionalism. Whereas nonfactualists seek to debunk the realist fiction of a moral subject matter, the moral fictionalist claims that that fiction stands in no need of debunking butis the means by which the noncognitive attitudes involved in moral acceptance are conveyed by moral utterance. Moral fictionalism is noncognitivism without a non-representational semantics. |
Contenido
1 Moral Pyrrhonism and Noncognitivism | 1 |
2 The Pragmatic Fallacy | 52 |
3 Varieties of Moral Irrealism | 95 |
4 Attitude Affect and Authority | 147 |
Bibliography | 186 |
191 | |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Términos y frases comunes
abortion accepting a moral According action actually appearance argument assertion attitudes authority aVect behalf belief Bernice circumstance claim cognitive commitments competent speaker consider consist conveyed denies denoting described desire determine dilemma disagreement about reasons distinct diVerent Edgar epistemic error existence explained expressivist functional role Gibbard’s given governing grounds independently inquire further inquiry interested involves justiWed kind lack least linguistic maintains mathematical matter means merely moral acceptance moral facts moral inquiry moral predicates moral properties moral proposition moral proposition expressed moral realism moral reasons moral sentence Moreover motivated nature noncognitive attitudes noncognitivism noncognitivist nonfactualism nonfactualist nonrepresentational normally normative object obligation occurrences Perhaps permissible person plausible position possible practical present proposition expressed putative quasi-assertion question rational real content realist reject relevant represent representational revision salient semantics sense SpeciWcally standard Suppose theoretical theory things true truth understand understood utterance Wctional Wctionalist wrong