Creating a Shared Morality

Heather Salazar, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara. Associate Professor of Philosophy, Western New England University. Publications: Philosophy of Spirituality (Brill 2018); Intro to Philosophy of Mind (Rebus 2019); “Descartes’ and Patanjali’s Conceptions of Self”, Journal of Indian Philosophy (2014).

Acknowledgements



Introduction



part 1: Arguments for Ethical Constructivism

1 Ethical Constructivism and Its Origins

 1 Supernaturalist and Realist Externalism

 2 Subjectivist and Contractarian Internalism

 3 Kantian Transcendentalism and Procedural Morality

 4 Korsgaard’s Neo-Kantian Thoroughgoing Constructivism

 5 Saving Constructivism from Inadequacies: Enlightenism



2 Public Reasons as the Basis of Objective Morality

 1 Procedural Publicity

 2 Reasons as the Basis for Morality

 3 Korsgaard’s Argument for the Constructive Publicity of Reasons

 4 Two Strategies: Inductive and Deductive



3 Wittgenstein’s Private Language Argument: The Inductive Strategy

 1 The Shareablity of Meanings and Reasons

 2 Two Interpretations of Wittgenstein’s Private Language Argument

 3 Reasons to Reject the Inductive Strategy

 4 Important Differences between the Meanings and Reasons



4 Communicative Understanding: The Deductive Strategy

 1 The Argument that Language Forces People to Share Reasons

 2 The Publicity of Linguistic Consciousness

 3 Obligating People to Take on Others’ Communicated Reasons

 4 The Distinction between Felt Obligation and Actual Obligation

 5 The Significance of Understanding versus Endorsing Reasons



part 2: Enlightenism: A New Theory that Answers the Hard Questions

5 Three Theses: Constructivism, Publicity and Universality

 1 The Source and Nature of Reasons

 2 Theoretical Possibilities

 3 Public/Objective Reasons in Realism and UT

 4 Private/Subjective Reasons and UT

 5 Weak Realism and Mixed Theories

 6 Constructed Reasons and UT



6 The Universality of Reasons in Constructivism

 1 Simple Requests

 2 Theoretical Reasons for Universality

 3 Conflicting Reasons

 4 A New Theory That Answers the Hard Questions



7 Creating Legitimate Reasons and the Enlightenist Account

 1 Conferring Value in Constructivist Ethics

 2 Thoroughgoing Constructivism’s Lapse into Subjectivism

 3 Enlightenism: Ideal Reflection on Relevant Identities

 4 Ideal Reflection and the Moral Identity

 5 Counterfactual Reasons



8 Private Reasons and Reasons of Autonomy

 1 Reasons of Autonomy

 2 Korsgaard’s Theory and Its Incompatibility with Private Reasons

 3 Reasons of Autonomy: The Natural Reading

 4 Reasons of Autonomy as Public: Korsgaard’s Alternative

 5 Objections to Korsgaard’s Interpretation of Reasons of Autonomy

 6 Competitive Ambitions



part 3: Resolving Conflicts between Reasons

9 The Relative Strength of Reasons

 1 Intuitive Differences in the Depth of Reasons

 2 A Realist View

 3 Two Constructivist Views



10 Criterions for Distinguishing Deeper Reasons

 1 Defining Depth in Reasons

 2 The Group Size Account

 3 The Efficacy Account

 4 Centrality to Identity: The Entrenchment Account

 5 Centrality to Identity: The Concern Account

 6 The Practical Impact of Depth

 7 Unintuitive Consequences versus the Importance of Autonomy



11 Buddhism and Ethical Constructivism

 1 The Nature of Morality in Buddhism and Ethical Constructivism

 2 We All Have Reasons to be Moral and Enlightened

 3 Understanding That: Interbeing in Buddhism and Ethical Constructivism

 4 Two Truths in Buddhism and Ethical Constructivism



12 Interdependence and Self-Interest in Ethical Constructivism

 1 The Interdependency of Relative and Absolute Truths in Buddhism

 2 Compassionate Action and Co-responsibility in Buddhism

 3 Interdependence in Ethical Constructivism

 4 Selfishness and Altruism in Constructivism

 5 Animal Psychology, Peace, and Ethics



Conclusion

Bibliography

Index