Naturalism, Reduction and Normativity: Pressing from Below

Author: Post, John F.

Source: Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Volume 73, Number 1, July 2006 , pp. 1-27(27)

Publisher: International Phenomenological Society

Buy & download fulltext article:

The full text article is not available for purchase.

The publisher only permits individual articles to be downloaded by subscribers.

Abstract:

David Papineau's model of scientific reduction, contrary to his intent, appears to enable a naturalist realist account of the primitive normativity involved in a biological adaptation's being "for" this or that (say the eye's being for seeing). By disabling the crucial anti-naturalist arguments against any such reduction, his model would support a cognitivist semantics for normative claims like "The heart is for pumping blood, and defective if it doesn't." No moral claim would follow, certainly. Nonetheless, by thus "pressing from below" we may learn something about moral normativity. For instance, suppose non-cognitivists like Mackie are right that the semantics of normative claims should be "unified": if the semantics of moral claims is non-cognitivist, so too is that of all normative claims. Then, assuming that a naturalist reduction does yield a sound cognitivist account of the primitive normativity, it would follow that our semantics of moral claims is cognitivist as well.

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2006-07-01

More about this publication?

This journal is now published by Blackwell Publishing. Current issues of this journal are available from here . Backfile content is in the process of being reloaded by Blackwell, and will shortly be removed from this page and available only from the Blackwell link above. If you have any queries about continued access to this journal please contact mailto:onlinehelp@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com.
Information for Authors
Subscribe to this Title
ingentaconnect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites