Abstract

A statement or summary of a position that seems attractive, but which remains unconvincing as presented here. "Moral" philosophy issues from Kant, and is concerned with arriving discursively at conclusions or imperatives. The "ethical" however, underlies the moral as Aristotelian virtue underlies practical reasoning; this ethical dimension has been ignored by recent moral philosophy. Galimberti sympathetically but painstakingly criticizes Hare's The Language of Morals. Ultimately, all views which lead to "voluntarism" come under attack on a number of counts. The synthesis consists in distinguishing the moral from the ethical in order to effect their collaboration; for moral reasoning, an "ethical language" is necessary, and the content of moral reasoning requires the form or basis provided by the ethical. Some kind of intuition or sensitivity is involved here, but unfortunately the case for it rests mostly upon the insufficiencies uncovered in other views.--C. D.