CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Patkowski, Isabel Grace |
|---|---|
| Title | Does McDowell's Sensibility Theory Lead to an Unacceptable Relativism? |
| Summary | In this essay, I investigate two interrelated questions: (1) how does John McDowell attempt to establish the objectivity – i.e. reality and normativity – of moral values , and (2) does that account thereby commit him to an unpalatable ethical relativism? I argue that McDowell grounds the objectivity of moral values in shared, actual, local and species-wide dispositions. This exposition does lead to metaethical relativism, the thesis that the truth or falsity of moral judgments are in some sense relative to local cultural practices. Metaethical relativism is troubling both because it conflicts with the moral phenomenology of at least some value ascriptions holding universally, and because it may preclude the possibility of individuals in one society meaningfully condemning or condoning practices in other cultures, and hence lead to a kind of normative relativism. However, I argue that McDowell can satisfactorily address both of these problems. |
| Supervisor | Rippon, Simon |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/patkowski_isabel.pdf |
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