Moral response-dependence, ideal observers, and the motive of duty: Responding to Zangwill

Erkenntnis 60 (3):357-369 (2004)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Moral response-dependent metaethical theories characterize moral properties in terms of the reactions of certain classes of individuals. Nick Zangwill has argued that such theories are flawed: they are unable to accommodate the motive of duty. That is, they are unable to provide a suitable reason for anyone to perform morally right actions simply because they are morally right. I argue that Zangwill ignores significant differences between various approvals, and various individuals, and that moral response-dependent theories can accommodate the motive of duty.

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

Moral Motivation and Moral Action.Julie Ane Tannenbaum - 2002 - Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles
Whatever It Is We Owe to Animals, It's Not to Eat Them.Adrian Kreutz - 2022 - Journal of Animal Ethics 12 (2):123-127.
The Relation of Moral Worth to the Good Will in Kant’s Ethics.Walter E. Schaller - 1992 - Journal of Philosophical Research 17:351-382.
Doubts about Duty as a Secondary Motive.Jessica Isserow - 2021 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 105 (2):276-298.
A New Defense of the Motive of Duty Thesis.Benjamin Wald - 2018 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 21 (5):1163-1179.
Kant on duty in the groundwork.Benjamin Ferguson - 2012 - Res Publica 18 (4):303-319.
Acting with feeling from duty.Julie Tannenbaum - 2002 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 5 (3):321-337.
Moral judgement and moral motivation.Russ Shafer-Landau - 1998 - Philosophical Quarterly 48 (192):353-358.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
1,033 (#19,795)

6 months
111 (#52,933)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Jason Kawall
Colgate University

References found in this work

The moral problem.Michael R. Smith - 1994 - Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell.
Dispositional Theories of Value.Michael Smith, David Lewis & Mark Johnston - 1989 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 63 (1):89-174.
Values and Secondary Qualities.John McDowell - 1985 - In Ted Honderich (ed.), Morality and Objectivity : A Tribute to J. L. Mackie. Boston: Routledge. pp. 110-129.
The schizophrenia of modern ethical theories.Michael Stocker - 1976 - Journal of Philosophy 73 (14):453-466.
A Sensible Subjectivism.David Wiggins - 1987 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.

View all 17 references / Add more references