[Penultimate draft]
| Abstract | This collection of eleven papers by Elijah Millgram (nine of which have been previously published) is ostensibly united by the thesis that the best way to go about assessing moral theories is to identify the view of practical reasoning that each such theory rests upon, and evaluate the adequacy of these respective theories of practical reasoning. The correct moral theory, Millgram assures us, will be the one that is paired with the best theory of practical reasoning. He outlines this methodology in a substantial (32 pp.) introduction. Why should we adopt Millgram’s method? A host of concerns immediately leap to mind. If two or more different moral theories rest on the same theory of practical reasoning, then how would discovering the latter to be the correct theory of practical reasoning help us decide among the moral theories? What if a given moral theory is consistent with two or more different theories of practical reasoning? What if we cannot evaluate theories of practical reasoning independently of having adopted a moral perspective? Millgram doesn’t address these natural questions head on, but rather proposes that the essays of the volume collectively constitute a “feasibility demonstration” (p. 3) of the method. In other words, the only way that we will be persuaded that the pairings between moral theories and practical reasoning theories are tight enough to support this grand project is to get our hands dirty in detailed discussion of particular moral theories, particular theories of practical reasoning, and the relations between them. It is through seeing the method at work that we will become convinced, Millgram hopes, of several interlocking theses: (1) that each of the major moral theories of the past has had a distinctive take on practical reasoning; (2) that pivotal structural elements of these theories are due to the underlying theory of practical reasoning; (3) that problems in a moral theory can often be traced to problems in the underlying theory of practical reasoning; (4) that theories of practical reasoning are “engines” (p.. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,653 |
| External links | This entry has no external links. Add one. |
| Through your library | Only published papers are available at libraries |
Similar books and articlesRichard Joyce (2007). Ethics Done Right: Practical Reasoning as a Foundation for Moral Theory - By Elijah Millgram. Philosophical Books 48 (1):90-92.
Bart Streumer (2010). Practical Reasoning. In Timothy O'Connor & Constantine Sandis (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of Action. Blackwell.
Thomas Magnell (2001). Educating for Practical Reasoning. The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 11:233-239.
Marcello Guarini (2007). Computation, Coherence, and Ethical Reasoning. Minds and Machines 17 (1).
Robert Audi (1989). Practical Reasoning. Routledge.
Elijah Millgram, Practical Reason and the Structure of Actions. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Elijah Millgram (2005). Ethics Done Right: Practical Reasoning as a Foundation for Moral Theory. Cambridge University Press.
Analytics
Monthly downloads
Sorry, there are not enough data points to plot this chart.
|
Added to index2009-09-28Total downloads12 ( #93,239 of 548,977 )Recent downloads (6 months)0How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
