Generalization and the Basis of EthicsGeneralization in Ethics: An Essays in the Logic of Ethics, with the Rudiments of a System of Moral Philosophy. Marcus George Singer
| Autor: | Warner Wick |
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| Rok vydání: | 1962 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Ethics. 72:288-298 |
| ISSN: | 1539-297X 0014-1704 |
| DOI: | 10.1086/291414 |
| Popis: | MARCUS GEORGE SINGER has attempted nothing less than "to determine the basis of morality, and to solve the problem of the justification of moral principles." And since success in this would "establish a rational basis for distinguishing right from wrong and thus lay the groundwork for a rational and normative system of ethics," this is no ordinary book. Its problems are the concern of everybody who reflects upon the right and the just, both in deliberating about what he should do and in wondering how seriously to take the latest fashions in moral skepticism. By attacking these fundamental issues head on rather than by way of the intramural disputes and technical niceties of academic philosophy, he has made his work available to the educated world at large. If he had done nothing else he would have fully repaid the Rockefeller Foundation, working through the Committee To Advance Original Work in Philosophy of the Western Division of the American Philosophical Association, for supporting his labors. Ambition, in this case, has paid off handsomely. I don't mean that moral philosophers can now close their shops, nor would I give the impression that Singer has discovered some wholly new principle or device that constitutes a "break-through" in this unprogressive subject. No, the principles here, if not an explicit understanding of them, are all quite as old as the problems they help to illuminate; and we have been appealing to them more or less consciously and cogently since the beginning of moral reflection. He has, however, given them a fresh formulation; he has shown not only that, but in large measure how, they do the job required of them; and he has dealt with familiar objections, some merely sophistical and others, well founded up to a point, that reveal the limitations of our principles and the conditions for applying them. In sum, he has helped us to conceive more clearly and to use more intelligently what we already know in one way or another. And he has done it with directness, economy, and more than a dash of laconic wit. Of course he has not done everything, and I will argue that the system whose rudiments he outlines for us has serious omissions, attributable less to deficiencies of principle than to an insensitivity to other aspects of ethical problems on which these same principles might be brought to bear. If I speak plainly about this it is not a sign of contempt, but of respect for a man of parts whose own gift for plain speaking is not the least reward that readers with a taste for the more astringent pleasures will find in this book. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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