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Only All Naturalists Should Worry About Only One Evolutionary Debunking Argument

Authors :
Tomas Bogardus
Source :
Ethics. 126:636-661
Publication Year :
2016
Publisher :
University of Chicago Press, 2016.

Abstract

Evolutionary debunking arguments abound, but they’re all murky where it counts most: exactly which epistemic principle combines with the facts of evolution to undermine moral realism? I’ll identify some possible principles but show that most are false, spoiling the arguments built upon them. And every argument threatens only “representationalist” views of moral psychology, on which moral judgments rely on mental intermediaries, for example, sentiments. Only one argument remains a menace: a new “Argument from Symmetry.” But it should worry only all naturalists, pressing a trilemma: abandon moral realism, accept a rationalism incongruous with naturalism, or reject naturalism. Nonnaturalists are free and clear.

Details

ISSN :
1539297X and 00141704
Volume :
126
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Ethics
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........e5ee5844869208a088ae10186b981bcd
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1086/684711