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Introduction to Part III: Could scientific discoveries undermine, or support, ethical principles?

Structure of this course

Course Structure

 

Part 1: psychological underpinnings of ethical abilities

Part 2: political consequences

Part 3: implications for ethics

Could scientific discoveries undermine, or support, ethical principles?

An alternative formluation may help.

Is there any route to knowledge of an ethical principle’s truth or falsity which nontrivially depends on premises known through scientific discovery?

This is not the canonical formulation because it assumes that global scepticism about moral knowledge is wrong. This leaves the question open to an uninteresting kind of negative answer (No, because there is no route to knowledge of any ethical principle).

No (Kant, 2002, pp. 43–4)

Alles also, was empirisch ist, ist als Zutat zum Princip der Sittlichkeit nicht allein dazu ganz untauglich, sondern der Lauterkeit der Sitten selbst höchst nachteilig [...]

‘Here we see philosophy placed in a predicament, Here it should prove its integrity as self-sustainer of its own laws [...] So everything empirical is, as a contribution to the principle of morality, not only entirely unfit for it, but even highly detrimental to the integrity of morals. [...] Against this careless, base way of thinking one cannot warn too often or too strongly: for human reason happily replaces morality with a bastard patched together from limbs of diverse ancestry which [...] looks nothing like virtue’ (loose translation adapted from Kant (2002, pp. 43--4)).

Could scientific discoveries undermine, or support,
ethical principles?

Phase 2

Identify general arguments against the use of intuitions in doing ethics.

Consider implications for Rawl’s method of reflective equilibrium.

Phase 1

Find places where a particular philosopher’s ethical argument relies on an empirical claim, and where knowledge of this claim depends on scientific discoveries.

Can be supportive rather than debunking. However, practically speaking, it’s easier to show that knowledge of the claim depends on scientific discoveries when the science contradicts the ethicist’s claim. (Otherwise it’s hard to show that the ethicist knew the claim was true all along.)