Vayrynen, PP (2014) Shapelessness in context. Noûs, 48 (3). 573 - 593. ISSN 0029-4624
Abstract
Many philosophers believe that the extensions of evaluative terms and concepts aren't unified under non-evaluative similarity relations and that this "shapelessness thesis" (ST) has significant metaethical implications regarding non-cognitivism, ethical naturalism, moral particularism, thick concepts and more. ST is typically offered as an explanation of why evaluative classifications appear to "outrun" classifications specifiable in independently intelligible non-evaluative terms. This paper argues that both ST and the outrunning point used to motivate it can be explained on the basis of more general factors that have nothing in particular to do with being evaluative. Insofar as ST is plausible, a wide variety of non-evaluative terms will also be such that the extension of a term T isn't unified under similarity relations specifiable in purely T-free terms. If so, there is no reason to expect ST to carry the sorts of metaethical implications that get attributed to it. I also show that my main argument is robust across certain complications that are raised by the context-sensitivity of many evaluative terms but have so far been ignored in discussions of ST and related matters.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2014, Wiley-Blackwell. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Noûs. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com |
Keywords: | Metaethics; Moral semantics; Evaluative concepts; Reductionism |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) > School of Philosophy (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EU - European Union PIRG03-GA-2008-231016 Arts & Humanities Research Council AHRC AH/H038035/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 04 Nov 2013 10:53 |
Last Modified: | 28 Mar 2018 18:37 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0068.2012.00877.x |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/j.1468-0068.2012.00877.x |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:73423 |