Cart
Free Shipping in Australia
Proud to be B-Corp

Normative Externalism Brian Weatherson (Marshall M. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy, Marshall M. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan)

Normative Externalism By Brian Weatherson (Marshall M. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy, Marshall M. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan)

Summary

Brian Weatherson argues that it is not important for people to live up to their own principles. What matters, in both ethics and epistemology, is that they live up to the correct principles: they should do the right thing and they should believe rationally. So moral uncertainty should not be treated like factual uncertainty.

Normative Externalism Summary

Normative Externalism by Brian Weatherson (Marshall M. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy, Marshall M. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan)

Normative Externalism argues that it is not important that people live up to their own principles. What matters, in both ethics and epistemology, is that they live up to the correct principles: that they do the right thing, and that they believe rationally. This stance, that what matters are the correct principles, not one's own principles, has implications across ethics and epistemology. In ethics, it undermines the ideas that moral uncertainty should be treated just like factual uncertainty, that moral ignorance frequently excuses moral wrongdoing, and that hypocrisy is a vice. In epistemology, it suggests we need new treatments of higher-order evidence, and of peer disagreement, and of circular reasoning, and the book suggests new approaches to each of these problems. Although the debates in ethics and in epistemology are often conducted separately, putting them in one place helps bring out their common themes. One common theme is that the view that one should live up to one's own principles looks less attractive when people have terrible principles, or when following their own principles would lead to riskier or more aggressive action than the correct principles. Another common theme is that asking people to live up to their principles leads to regresses. It can be hard to know what action or belief complies with one's principles. And now we can ask, in such a case should a person do what they think their principles require, or what their principles actually require? Both answers lead to problems, and the best way to avoid these problems is to simply say people should follow the correct principles.

About Brian Weatherson (Marshall M. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy, Marshall M. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan)

Brian Weatherson gained his PhD from Monash University in 1998. He is currently the Marshall M. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has published in a wide range of areas across philosophy and, these days, works primarily in epistemology, philosophy of language, decision theory and ethics.

Table of Contents

1: Introduction Part I: Ethics 2: All About Internalism 3: Against Symmetry 4: A Dilemma for Internalism 5: Blame and Moral Ignorance 6: Double Standards Part II: Epistemology 7: Level-Crossing Principles 8: Higher-Order Evidence 9: Circles, Epistemic and Benign 10: Akrasia 11: Screening and Regresses 12: Disagreement 13: Epilogue

Additional information

NPB9780199696536
9780199696536
0199696535
Normative Externalism by Brian Weatherson (Marshall M. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy, Marshall M. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan)
New
Hardback
Oxford University Press
2019-03-27
260
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - Normative Externalism