What is morality?
Abstract In “Modern Moral Philosophy,” Anscombe argued that the moral vocabulary does not correspond to any concept in Aristotelian ethics, that it derives from a confused response to the ethics of divine command, and that it is literally meaningless. This essay contends that Anscombe...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Netherlands
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/142496 |
| _version_ | 1811072639507103744 |
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| author | Setiya, Kieran |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Setiya, Kieran |
| author_sort | Setiya, Kieran |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Abstract
In “Modern Moral Philosophy,” Anscombe argued that the moral vocabulary does not correspond to any concept in Aristotelian ethics, that it derives from a confused response to the ethics of divine command, and that it is literally meaningless. This essay contends that Anscombe was wrong. Morality corresponds to Aristotle’s general sense of “justice,” which is complete virtue in relation to others. But Anscombe’s question remains: what is it for an action to be morally wrong, not merely something one should not do? The answer is not that wrongness warrants blame or that an action is wrong when it wrongs another person, but that an action is morally wrong when it is something one should not do that one has no right to do. In the absence of rights, Anscombe’s question has no answer. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:09:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/142496 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:09:13Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | Springer Netherlands |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1424962023-01-30T20:39:31Z What is morality? Setiya, Kieran Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Abstract In “Modern Moral Philosophy,” Anscombe argued that the moral vocabulary does not correspond to any concept in Aristotelian ethics, that it derives from a confused response to the ethics of divine command, and that it is literally meaningless. This essay contends that Anscombe was wrong. Morality corresponds to Aristotle’s general sense of “justice,” which is complete virtue in relation to others. But Anscombe’s question remains: what is it for an action to be morally wrong, not merely something one should not do? The answer is not that wrongness warrants blame or that an action is wrong when it wrongs another person, but that an action is morally wrong when it is something one should not do that one has no right to do. In the absence of rights, Anscombe’s question has no answer. 2022-05-12T12:15:09Z 2022-05-12T12:15:09Z 2021-07-03 2022-05-12T03:31:19Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/142496 Setiya, Kieran. 2021. "What is morality?." en https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-021-01689-y Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. application/pdf Springer Netherlands Springer Netherlands |
| spellingShingle | Setiya, Kieran What is morality? |
| title | What is morality? |
| title_full | What is morality? |
| title_fullStr | What is morality? |
| title_full_unstemmed | What is morality? |
| title_short | What is morality? |
| title_sort | what is morality |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/142496 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT setiyakieran whatismorality |