Abstract

Using biology as his paradigm of an Aristotelian/normative enterprise, Wallace maintains that a naturalistic view of human good is a plausible alternative to noncognitivist accounts. From the assumption that life is a natural phenomenon it follows that normative data are found in nature. Knowledge of these norms is central to biological inquiry. Biologists seek to know what it is for creatures of the kind they are investigating to flourish, to live well. They do this by investigating the characteristic mode of life of creatures of the given kind, i.e., the mode of life which normal, nondefective creatures of the given kind live under favorable circumstances. Wallace himself points out a difficulty with the inquiry, namely that "characteristic mode of life," "nondefective creatures of a given kind," and "favorable circumstances" are interconnected notions, so that knowledge of one requires some knowledge of the others. How could the biologist exclude defective individuals from his study sample without presupposing knowledge of the very distinction between normal and defective creatures which he sets out to learn from his investigation? This question does not, however, paralyze the inquiry, Wallace maintains, since the biologist does not merely study data and generalize, but rather fits his problem "into a vast network of concepts, classifications, theory, and lore."