Vayrynen, P (2004) Particularism and Default Reasons. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 7 (1). 53 - 79. ISSN 1386-2820
Abstract
This paper addresses a recent suggestion that moral particularists can extend their view to countenance default reasons (at a first stab, reasons that are pro tanto unless undermined) by relying on certain background expectations of normality. I first argue that normality must be understood non-extensionally. Thus if default reasons rest on normality claims, those claims won’t bestow upon default reasons any definite degree of extensional generality. Their generality depends rather on the contingent distributional aspects of the world, which no theory of reasons should purport to settle. Appeals to default reasons cannot therefore uniquely support particularism. But this argument also implies that if moral generalism entailed that moral reasons by necessity have invariant valence (in the natural extensional sense), it would be a non-starter. Since generalism is not a nonstarter, my argument forces us to rethink the parameters of the generalism-particularism debate. Here I propose to clarify the debate by focusing on its modal rather than extensional aspects. In closing, I outline the sort of generalism that I think is motivated by my discussion, and then articulate some worries this view raises about the theoretical usefulness of the label ‘default reason’.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2004, Kluwer Academic Publishers. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. The final publication is available at link.springer.com |
Keywords: | moral principles; moral particularism; moral generalism; normality; generics; default reason |
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) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 15 Nov 2013 11:02 |
Last Modified: | 15 Sep 2014 02:50 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:ETTA.0000019980.79568.... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Kluwer Academic Publishers |
Identification Number: | 10.1023/B:ETTA.0000019980.79568.2f |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:76785 |