Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T00:15:51.575Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Debunking, supervenience, and Hume’s Principle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Mary Leng Open the ORCID record for Mary Leng [Opens in a new window]
Mary Leng*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of York, York, UK
*
Mary Leng [email protected]Department of Philosophy, University of York, YorkYO10 5DD, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Debunking arguments against both moral and mathematical realism have been pressed, based on the claim that our moral and mathematical beliefs are insensitive to the moral/mathematical facts. In the mathematical case, I argue that the role of Hume’s Principle as a conceptual truth speaks against the debunkers’ claim that it is intelligible to imagine the facts about numbers being otherwise while our evolved responses remain the same. Analogously, I argue, the conceptual supervenience of the moral on the natural speaks presents a difficulty for the debunker’s claim that, had the moral facts been otherwise, our evolved moral beliefs would have remained the same.

Keywords

Mathematicsmetaethicsevolutionary debunkingHume’s principlesupervenience
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 49 , Issue 8 , December 2019 , pp. 1083 - 1103
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, A. 2003. “Does the Existence of Mathematical Objects Make a Difference? ” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 81 (2): 246–264. doi:10.1080/713659635.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balaguer, M. 1998. Platonism and Anti-Platonism in Mathematics. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Bedke, M. 2014. “No Coincidence.” In Oxford Studies in Metaethics, edited by Landau, R. Shafer 9: 102–125. Oxford: OUP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke-Doane, J. 2012. “Morality and Mathematics: The Evolutionary Challenge.” Ethics 122 (2): 313–340. doi:10.1086/663231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke-Doane, J. 2016. “Debunking and Dispensability.” In Explanation in Ethics and Mathematics, edited by Leibowitz, U. D. and Sinclair, N., 23–36. Oxford: OUP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enoch, D. 2010. “The Epistemological Challenge to Metanormative Realism: How Best to Understand It, and How to Cope with It.” Philosophical Studies 148 (3): 413–438. doi:10.1007/s11098-009-9333-6.Google Scholar
Heyting, A. 1956. Intuitionism: An Introduction. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Raz, J. 2000. “The Truth in Particularism.” In Moral Particularism, edited by Hooker, B. and Little, M. O., 48–78. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Roberts, D. 2017. “Why Believe in Normative Supervenience? ” In Oxford Studies in Metaethics, edited by Shafer-Landau, R., 2–21. Vol. 13. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Rosen, G. 2014. “What Is Normative Necessity?” Accessed October 2017. https://www.academia.edu/9159728/Normative_NecessityGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. 1994. The Moral Problem. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Street, S. 2006. “A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value.” Philosophical Studies 127 (1): 109–166. doi:10.1007/s11098-005-1726-6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Street, S. 2008. “Reply to Copp: Naturalism, Normativity, and the Varieties of Realism Worth Worrying About.” Philosophical Issues 18 (1): 207–228. doi:10.1111/j.1533-6077.2008.00145.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturgeon, N. 2009. “Doubts about the Supervenience of the Evaluative.” In Oxford Studies in Metaethics, edited by Shafer-Landau, R., 53–92. Vol. 4. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
van Bendegem, J. P. 2012. “A Defence of Strict Finitism.” Constructive Foundations 7 (2): 141–149.Google Scholar
Zalta, E. N. 2017. “Frege’s Theorem and Foundations for Arithmetic.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition), edited by Zalta, E. N.. Accessed 23 May 2018. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/frege-theorem/Google Scholar
Zalta, E. N. 2018. “Gottlob Frege.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2018 Edition), edited by Zalta, E. N.. Accessed 23 May 2018. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2018/entries/frege/Google Scholar
Zeilberger, D. 2004. “Real” Analysis Is a Degenerate Case of Discrete Analysis.” In New Progress in Difference Equations (Proc. ICDEA 2001), edited by Aulbach, B., Elaydi, S., and Ladas, G.. 25–34. Taylor & Francis: London.Google Scholar