Analytical Moral Functionalism Meets Moral Twin Earth

Terry Horgan, Mark Timmons

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

In chapters 4 and 5 of his 1998 book From Metaphysics to Ethics: A Defence of Conceptual Analysis, Frank Jackson propounds and defends a form of moral realism that he calls both 'moral functionalism' and 'analytical descriptivism'. This chapter argues that this metaethical position, referred to as 'analytical moral functionalism', is untenable. It does this by applying a generic thought-experimental deconstructive recipe that has been used against other views that posit moral properties and identify them with certain natural properties - a recipe that is applicable to virtually any metaphysically naturalist version of moral realism. The recipe deploys a scenario called Moral Twin Earth.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationMinds, Ethics, and Conditionals
Subtitle of host publicationThemes from the Philosophy of Frank Jackson
PublisherOxford University Press
Volume9780199267989
ISBN (Electronic)9780191708268
ISBN (Print)9780199267989
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2010

Keywords

  • Analytical descriptivism
  • Analytical moral functionalism
  • Frank jackson
  • Moral realism
  • Moral twin earth

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Arts and Humanities(all)

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