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Values and Beliefs: a Pragmatist Critique of Moral Nihilism J.P Macalester College DigitalCommons@Macalester College Philosophy Honors Projects Philosophy Department 2012 Values and Beliefs: A pragmatist critique of moral nihilism J.P. Weismuller [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/phil_honors Part of the Epistemology Commons, and the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Weismuller, J.P., "Values and Beliefs: A pragmatist critique of moral nihilism" (2012). Philosophy Honors Projects. Paper 6. http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/phil_honors/6 This Honors Project is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy Department at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Values and Beliefs: A pragmatist critique of moral nihilism J.P. Weismuller Philosophy Honors Thesis Professor Martin Gunderson, Advisor Macalester College 2012 Abstract Moral nihilism maintains that value judgments cannot be justified. In this paper I argue against two prominent nihilistic theories: error theory and expressivism. First I present a meta-valuation thesis , which holds that it would be more valuable if at least some value judgments were justified. Second I argue for a value-justification thesis, which holds that the greater value of value-justifying theories warrants a rejection of nihilistic theories. This latter thesis requires a pragmatist premise: justified beliefs are the most valuable of possible beliefs. With this premise and a critique of meta-ethical theory choice, I argue that meta-ethical justification proceeds via an atypical form of the method of reflective equilibrium. Since this particular method cannot produce a justification for error theory or expressivism, I conclude that these two forms of moral nihilism should be rejected in favor of more valuable meta-ethical theories. 2 Acknowledgments I would like to thank Martin Gunderson for an engaging year of commentary, criticism, and most of all, conversation. I would also like to thank Diane Michelfelder for helping me take the first steps toward writing this paper, and David Martyn for sparking my intial interest in value and value theory. I owe a debt of gratitude to the 2012 senior seminar for their questions and concerns regarding the early drafts. I especially want to thank Evan Oelschlaeger, Charles McClung, and Jeff Aisen for the many discussions about my project, ethics, and philosophy generally. Your ideas are surely the inspiration for much of the propositions herein. This paper is dedicated to you, for being the precondition of its possibility. 3 Contents Introduction.................................................................................................................................................... 6 Part 1: The meta-valuation thesis Introduction.................................................................................................................................................. 10 1. The value of evaluation A. Dewey on value and evaluation.......................................................................................................... 13 B. The problem of moral authority........................................................................................................... 18 C. Reflection, criticism, and possible values........................................................................................... 20 2. The structure of evaluation A. Circularity and key values................................................................................................................... 25 B. Intrinsic vs. directly justified values..................................................................................................... 29 C. Axiological foundationalism. ............................................................................................................... 35 D. Evaluation as a foundational value..................................................................................................... 38 3. The value of value A. Self-subsumption ................................................................................................................................ 41 B. Meta-value .......................................................................................................................................... 44 Conclusion................................................................................................................................................... 54 Part 2: The value-justification thesis Introduction.................................................................................................................................................. 56 4. The value of beliefs A. James on the ethics of belief .............................................................................................................. 59 B. Consequentialism, fictionalism, and religion ...................................................................................... 66 C. The value of meta-ethical beliefs........................................................................................................ 71 5. Meta-ethical theory choice A. First-order ethics and meta-ethics ...................................................................................................... 79 B. Possible justificatory relations............................................................................................................. 87 C. Scientific theory choice....................................................................................................................... 95 D. Reciprocal justification........................................................................................................................ 97 6. Meta-ethical justification A. Method of reflective equilibrium ........................................................................................................ 101 B. Quasi-coherentism............................................................................................................................ 105 C. Refuting moral nihilism ..................................................................................................................... 111 Conclusion................................................................................................................................................. 116 References................................................................................................................................................ 118 4 Exhaustion can be acquired or inherited— in any case it changes the aspect of things, the value of things . -Friedrich Nietzsche, 1888 5 Values and Beliefs: A pragmatist critique of moral nihilism Introduction The goal of this thesis is to undermine moral nihilism. By moral nihilism, I mean one of two positions in meta-ethics. First is the view that value judgments are systemically false. The most notable proponent of this view is J.L. Mackie, whose “error theory” maintains that value judgments systemically fail to refer to objective values because objective values do not exist. The second nihilistic view denies that value judgments have cognitive validity. The most notable proponent of this view is A.J. Ayer, whose “expressivism” maintains that value judgments fail to describe aspects of the world and, as such, cannot be true or false. On both these views, value judgments and value systems cannot be justified. 1 I seek to undermine error theory and expressivism by arguing that, 1) it would be more valuable if at least some value judgments were justified, and 2) the greater value of value-justifying theories warrants a rejection of nihilistic theories. I refer to (1) as a meta-valuation thesis and (2) as a value-justification thesis . Part 1 of this thesis argues for the meta-valuation thesis and Part 2 argues for the value-justification thesis. In regards to the meta-valuation thesis, I maintain that it would be more valuable to evaluate, and moreover to evaluate well . Nihilistic theories need not argue that, given their conclusions, we should no longer evaluate; but what these positions cannot do is propose standards of evaluation. In saying that it would be more valuable to evaluate well, I mean that it would be more valuable to have standards of evaluation; in other 1 It is important to note that not all non-cognitivist views are nihilistic: R.M. Hare’s universal prescriptivism holds that value judgments can be justified. Further, not all irrealist views are nihilistic: many irrealist views are constructivist. This means that nihilistic views do not necessarily fall on either side of cognitivist/non-cognitivist or realist/irrealist debate. 6 words, it would be better to adopt some criteria for the justification of value judgments rather than reject the validity of any criteria whatsoever. The claim here is not that we should adopt any specific criteria of evaluation, but just that it would be more valuable to adopt some criteria of evaluation rather than none. One challenge for my meta-valuation thesis is to show that it actually would be more valuable to have criteria for the justification of value judgments. Part 1 addresses this by arguing that evaluation is itself valuable and, moreover, that evaluation is a foundational value. This claim has two components. First, all other values
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