What can philosophy contribute to ethics? / James Griffin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Griffin, James, 1933-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethics.

Philosophy.

Physical Description:

157 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2015.

Summary:

Ethics appears early in the life of a culture. It is not the creation of philosophers. Many philosophers today think that their job is to take the ethics of their society in hand, analyse it into parts, purge the bad ideas, and organize the good into a systematic moral theory. The philosophers' ethics that results is likely to be very different from the culture's raw ethics and, they think, being better, should replace it. But few of us, even among philosophers, settle real-life moral questions by consulting the Categorical Imperative or the Principle of Utility, largely because, if we do, we often do not trust the outcome or cannot even reliably enough decide what it is. By contrast, James Griffin explores the question what philosophers can reasonably expect to contribute to normative ethics or to the ethics of a culture. Griffin argues that moral philosophers must tailor their work to what ordinary humans' motivational capabilities, and he offers a new account of moral deliberation.

Contents:

I The Idea of Ethics 3

II 'Ought' Implies 'Can': Motivation 23

III 'Ought' Implies 'Can': Knowledge 43

IV Naturalizing Ethics: The Newtonizers 61

V Naturalizing Ethics: The Darwinizers 69

VI Systematizing Ethics 83

VII Rejecting 'Morality' 93

VIII Equalizing What? 105

IX What Can Philosophy Contribute to Ethics? 115.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 137-153) and index.

ISBN:

9780198748090

0198748094

OCLC:

909250765