The ontological status of moral reasons
A critical assessment of Charles Larmore’s Morality and metaphysics (2021)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/metyper.32.2024.19429Keywords:
Normative reasons, agent-neutrality, agent-relativity, relativity, reflectiveness, Strawson, mind-dependenceAbstract
In Morality and Metaphysics, Larmore outlines a metaphysical conception of normative reasons in general, and moral reasons in particular, that he defines as “platonistic”. In accordance with this conception, all reasons for thought and action would belong to an ontologically objective domain, insofar as their mode of existence would be, in Searle’s words, independent of any perceiver or mental state. The main objective of the present paper is to criticize this conception. To this end, it will be argued, on the one hand, that Larmore’s conception is totally inadequate to deal with a specific kind of normative reasons, namely agent-relative reasons; and, on the other, that even if it recognizes the reflective stance as an inseparable aspect of morality, it tends to underestimate what this means ontologically speaking. As will become apparent in a clear Strawsonian vein, morality’s normative force would rest to a great extent on some fundamental attitudes and dispositions we cannot do without as human beings.
Downloads
Metrics
References
ALVAREZ, Maria (2010). Kinds of Reasons. An Essay in the Philosophy of Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
BAKHURST, David (2013). “Moral Particularism: Ethical Not Metaphysical?”. In Bakhurst, Hooker, and Little (2013), pp. 192-217.
BAKHURST, David, HOOKER, Brad, and LITTLE, Margaret Olivia, eds. (2013). Thinking About Reasons. Themes from the Philosophy of Jonathan Dancy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
BUCKLAND, Jamie (2018). “Skorupski and Broome on the Agent-Neutral/Agent-Relative Distinction”. Utilitas, 31 (1), pp. 1-24.
CUNEO, Terence (2007). The Normative Web: An Argument for Moral Realism. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
DANCY, Jonathan (2004a). “Enticing Reasons”. In Jay Wallace, Pettit, Scheffler, and Smith (2004), pp. 91-118.
DANCY, Jonathan (2004b). Ethics Without Principles. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
DILLON, Robin S. (1992). “Respect and Care: Toward Moral Integration”. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 22, n. 1, pp. 105–32.
JAY WALLACE, R., PETTIT, P., SCHEFFLER, S., and SMITH, M., eds. (2004). Reason and Value. Themes from the Moral Philosophy of Joseph Raz. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
FRANKFURT, Harry (1998). The Importance of What We Care About. New York: Cambridge University Press.
GAUTHIER, David (1986). Morals by Agreement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
HABERMAS, Jürgen (2000). Aclaraciones a la ética del discurso. Buenos Aires: El Cid Editor.
JURJAKO, Marko (2017). “Normative Reasons: Response-Dependence and the Problem of Idealization”. Philosophical Explorations, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 261-275.
KORSGAARD, Christine M. (1996). “Reply”. In Korsgaard, Cohen, Geuss, Nagel, and Williams (1996), pp. 219-258.
KORSGAARD, Christine M., COHEN, Gerald A., GEUSS, Raymond, NAGEL, Thomas, and WILLIAMS, Bernard, ed. Onora O’Neill (1996). The Sources of Normativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
LARMORE, Charles (1987). Patterns of Morals Complexity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
LARMORE, Charles (1996). The Morals of Modernity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
LARMORE, Charles (2008). The Autonomy of Morality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
LARMORE, Charles (2021). Morality and Metaphysics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
LORD, Errold and PLUNKETT, David (2018). “Reasons Internalism”. In McPherson and Plunkett (2018), pp. 324-339.
LÖSCHKE, Jörg (2021). “Agent-Relative Reasons and Normative Force”. Philosophia, 49, pp. 359-372.
McPHERSON, Tristram and PLUNKETT, David, eds. (2018). The Routledge Handbook of Mataethics. New York: Routledge.
NAGEL, Thomas (1970). The Possibility of Altruism. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
NAGEL, Thomas (1996). “Universality and the Reflective Self”. In Korsgaard, Cohen, Geuss, Nagel, and Williams (1996), pp. 200-209.
NUSSBAUM, Martha C. (2001). The Fragility of Goodness. Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
RAWLS, John (1971). A Theory of Justice. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
RAZ, Joseph (2001). Value, Respect, and Attachment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ROSATI, Connie S. (2018). “Mind-Dependence and Moral Realism”. In McPherson and Plunkett (2018), pp. 355-370.
SARTRE, Jean Paul (1948). Existentialism and Humanism. Trans. P. Mairet. London, UK: Methuen and Co. Ltd.
SCANLON, Thomas (2014). Being Realistic About Reasons. New York: Oxford University Press.
SCHEFFLER, Samuel (2010). Equality and Tradition. Questions of Value in Moral and Political Theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
SEARLE, John (1995). The Construction of Social Reality. New York: The Free Press.
SMART, J. C. and WILLIAMS, B. (1973). Utilitarianism: For and Against. New York: Cambridge University Press.
SMITH, Michael (1994). The Moral Problem. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
STRAWSON, PETER F. (2008). Freedom and Resentment and Other Essays. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
WIGGINS, David (1987). Needs, Values, Truth. Oxford: Blackwell.
WILLIAMS, Bernard (1973). “A Critique of Utilitarianism”. In Smart and Williams (1973), pp. 77-150.
WILLIAMS, Bernard (1995). Making Sense of Humanity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
WILLIAMS, Bernard (2006). Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who have publications with this journal agree to the following terms:
a. Authors retain their copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication of their work, which is simultaneously subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License that allows third parties to share the work provided that its author and first publication in this journal are indicated.
b. Authors may adopt other non-exclusive licensing arrangements for distribution of the published version of the work (e.g. depositing it in an institutional telematic archive or publishing it in a monographic volume) provided that initial publication in this journal is indicated.
c. Authors are allowed and encouraged to disseminate their work via the Internet (e.g. in institutional telematics archives or on their website) before and during the submission process, which can lead to interesting exchanges and increase citations of the published work (see The Open Access Effect).
17.png)
