Deus Ex Machina: A Cautionary Tale for Naturalists

Abstract: In this paper we critically examine and seek to extend Philip Kitcher’s Ethical Project to weave together a distinctive naturalistic conception of how ethics came to occupy the place it does in our lives and how the existing ethical project should be revised and extended into the future. Although we endorse his insight that ethical progress is better conceived of as the improvement of an existing state than an incremental approach towards a fixed endpoint, we nonetheless go on to argue that the metaethical apparatus Kitcher constructs around this creative metaethical proposal simply cannot do the work that he demands of it. The prospect of fundamental conflict between different functions of the ethical project requires Kitcher to appeal to a particular normative stance in order to judge specific changes in the ethical project to be genuinely progressive, and we argue that the virtues of continuity and coherence to which he appeals can only specify rather than justify the normative stance he favors. We conclude by suggesting an alternative approach for ethical naturalists that seems to us ultimately more promising than Kitcher’s own.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Standort: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Umfang: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Deus Ex Machina: A Cautionary Tale for Naturalists ; volume:34 ; number:1 ; year:2012 ; pages:51-62 ; extent:12 ; Analyse & Kritik ; 34, Heft 1 (2012), 51-62 (gesamt 12)

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Urheber: O’Connor, Cailin ; Fulton, Nathan ; Wagner, Elliott ; Stanford, P. Kyle

Weitere Informationen

• DOI: 10.1515/auk-2012-0104
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2404171635094.130243075931
• Rechteinformation: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 14.08.2025, 10:47 MESZ