Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T01:36:12.119Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Moral coherence and value pluralism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Patricia Marino*
Affiliation:
aDepartment of Philosophy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada
*

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of what value pluralism tells us about the pursuit of moral coherence as a method of moral reasoning. I focus on the status of the norm of ‘systematicity, ’ or the demand that our principles be as few and as simple as possible. I argue that, given certain descriptive facts about the pluralistic ways we value, epistemic ways of supporting a systematicity norm do not succeed. Because it is sometimes suggested that coherence functions in moral reasoning as it does in scientific reasoning, my argument considers analogies and disanalogies between moral reasoning and scientific reasoning.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2013

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

Beauchamp, Tom. 1995. Principlism and Its Alleged Competitors. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 5: 181198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beauchamp, Tom and Childress, James. 2009. Principles of Biomedical Ethics 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
BonJour, Laurence. 1985. Structure of Empirical Knowledge Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Brink, D. 1989. Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniels, N. 1979. Wide Reflective Equilibrium and Theory Acceptance in Ethics. Journal of Philosophy 76: 256282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniels, N. 2011. “Reflective Equilibrium”. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [Spring 2011 Edition] Edited by:Zalta, Edward N. URL=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/reflective-equilibrium/Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. 1977. Taking Rights Seriously Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gert, Bernard Culver, Charles and Danner Clouser, K. 1997. Bioethics: A Return to Fundamental Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan and Joseph, Craig. 2007. “The Moral Mind: How Five Sets of Innate Intuitions Guide the Development of Many Culture-Specific Virtues, and Perhaps Even Modules”. In The Innate Mind Edited by:Carruthers, Peter Laurence, Stephen and Stich, Stephen. vol. 3 367392. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan and Joseph, Craig. 2004. Intuitive Ethics: How Innately Prepared Intuitions Generate Culturally Variable Virtues. Dædalus 133: 5566.Google Scholar
Kagan, S. 1989. The Limits of Morality New York: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Kappel, Klemens. 2006. The Meta-Justification of Reflective Equilibrium. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 9: 131147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korsgaard, Christine. 1986. The Right to Lie: Kant on Dealing with Evil. Philosophy and Public Affairs 15: 325349.Google Scholar
Marmor, A. 2004. The Rule of Law and Its Limits. Law and Philosophy 23: 143.Google Scholar
Mason, Elinor. 2008. “Value Pluralism”. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition) Edited by:Zalta, Edward N. URL= < http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/value- pluralism/>Google Scholar
Nagel, Thomas. [1979] 1991. The Fragmentation of Value, in Mortal Questions Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 2000. “Why Practice Needs Ethical Theory”. In Moral Particularism Edited by:Hooker, Brad and Little, Margaret. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1958. Justice as Fairness. The Philosophical Review 67: 164194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Raz, J. 1992. The Relevance of Coherence. Boston University Law Review 72: 273321.Google Scholar
Ross, David. [1930] 2003. The Right and the Good New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ryan, Rebecca M. 1995. The Sex Right: A Legal History of the Marital Rape Exemption. Law and Social Inquiry 20: 9411001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sayre-McCord, Geoffrey. 1985. Coherence and Models for Moral Theorizing. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 66: 170190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sayre-McCord, Geoffrey. 1996. “Coherentist Epistemology and Moral Theory”. In Moral Knowledge? Edited by:Sinnott- Armstrong, and Timmons, . 137189. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael. 1995. Moral Problem Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Thagard, Paul. 2007. Coherence, Truth, and the Development of Scientific Knowledge. Philosophy of Science 74: 2847.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thagard, P. 1998. Ethical Coherence. Philosophical Psychology 11: 405–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thagard, P. 2000. Coherence in Thought and Action Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Varden, H. 2010. Kant and Lying to the Murderer at the Door … One More Time: Kant's Legal Philosophy and Lies to Murderers and Nazis. Journal of Social Philosophy 41: 403421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar