E-Book Overview
In this book, Folke Tersman explores what we can learn about the nature of moral thinking from moral disagreement. He explains how diversity of opinion on moral issues undermines the idea that moral convictions can be objectively valued. Arguments on moral thinking are often criticized for not being able to explain why there is a contrast between ethics and other areas in which there is disagreement, but where one does not give up the idea of an objective truth, as in the natural sciences. Tersman shows that the contrast has to do with facts about when, and on what basis, moral convictions can be correctly attributed to an agent or speaker.
E-Book Content
P1: KAE 0521853389pre
CUNY258/Tersman
0 521 85338 9
December 6, 2005
19:29
Moral Disagreement
In this book, Folke Tersman explores what we can learn about the nature of moral thinking from moral disagreement. He explains how diversity of opinion on moral issues undermines the idea that moral convictions can be objectively true or valid. Such arguments are often criticized for not being able to explain why there is a contrast between ethics and other areas in which there is disagreement, but where one does not give up the idea of an objective truth, as in the natural sciences. Tersman shows that the contrast has to do with facts about when, and on what basis, moral convictions can be correctly attributed to an agent or speaker. Folke Tersman is a professor of philosophy at Stockholm University. In addition to articles in international journals such as Erkenntnis, Synthese, Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, and Theoria, he is the author of several books on moral philosophy in Swedish.
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P1: KAE 0521853389pre
CUNY258/Tersman
0 521 85338 9
December 6, 2005
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19:29
P1: KAE 0521853389pre
CUNY258/Tersman
0 521 85338 9
December 6, 2005
19:29
cambridge studies in philosophy General editor ernest sosa (Brown University) Advisory editors: jonathan dancy (University of Reading) john haldane (University of St. Andrews) gilbert harman (Princeton University) frank jackson (Australian National University) william g. lycan (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) sydney shoemaker (Cornell University) judith j. thomson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) recent titles: mark lance and john o’leary-hawthorne The Grammar of Meaning d. m. armstrong A World of States of Affairs pierre jacob What Minds Can Do andre gallois The World Without, the Mind Within fred feldman Utilitarianism, Hedonism, and Desert laurence bonjour In Defense of Pure Reason david lewis Papers in Philosophical Logic wayne davis Implicature david cockburn Other Times david lewis Papers on Metaphysics and Epistemology raymond martin Self-Concern annette barnes Seeing Through Self-Deception michael bratman Faces of Intention amie thomasson Fiction and Metaphysics david lewis Papers on Ethics and Social Philosophy fred dretske Perception, Knowledge, and Belief lynne rudder baker Persons and Bodies john greco Putting Skeptics in Their Place ruth garrett millikan On Clear and Confused Ideas derk pereboom Living Without Free Will brian ellis Scientific Essentialism alan h. goldman Practical Rules: When We Need Them and When We Don’t christopher hill Thought and World andrew newman The Correspondence Theory of Truth ishtiyaque haji Deontic Morality and Control wayne a. davis Meaning, Expression and Thought peter railton Facts, Values, and Norms jane heal Mind, Reason and Imagination jonathan kvanvig The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Understanding andrew melnyk A Physicalist Manifesto
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