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Saving Moral Realism: Against Blackburn's Projectivism City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2015 Saving Moral Realism: Against Blackburn's Projectivism Paul James Cummins Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/895 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] SAVING MORAL REALISM: AGAINST BLACKBURN’S PROJECTIVISM BY PAUL J. CUMMINS A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Philosophy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 © 2015 Paul J. Cummins All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted by the Graduate Faculty in Philosophy in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. David M. Rosenthal (Date) Chair of Examining Committee John Greenwood (Date) Executive Officer Steven M. Cahn Stefan Baumrin Rosamond Rhodes Supervisory Committee The City University of New York iii Abstract SAVING MORAL REALISM: AGAINST BLACKBURN’S PROJECTIVISM by Paul J. Cummins Adviser: Professor Steven M. Cahn In the argumentative dialectic between moral realists and non-cognitivist moral antirealists each side in the debate is typically thought to enjoy a different prima facie advantage over its rival. Moral realism gains plausibility from its truth-conditional semantics because it can explain the meaning of moral judgments on the same basis as ordinary propositions. However, many moral philosophers doubt moral realism because the theory is committed to the existence of moral properties, which are, in J. L. Mackie’s term, “queer.” Moral antirealism denies that these moral properties exist, and this is a principal reason why many moral philosophers endorse the theory. However, if moral terms like “good”, “immoral”, or “right” do not refer to anything, then the meanings of the moral judgments in which they appear cannot be explained with truth- conditional semantics; moral antirealists who wish to preserve moral practice need to develop a semantics that can accommodate it. The general perception of the dialectic is that moral realists have the upper hand in semantics, but a disadvantage in metaphysics, and vice versa for moral antirealists. This essay challenges this assumption. Simon Blackburn’s quasi-realism is one of the principal examples of non-cognitivism, a form of moral antirealism that tries to develop an alternative account of moral semantics in iv which the function of a moral proposition is not to express belief but attitude. Quasi-realism is Blackburn’s research program of developing a semantics for moral discourse that is consistent with projectivism, the metaphysics of his metaethical theory. After situating Blackburn’s project within the history of twentieth century metaethics, this essay reviews Blackburn’s quasi-realist semantics and criticizes it. This essay then aims to extend the metaethical dialectic by developing and critiquing an account of Blackburn’s projectivism. This essay interprets projectivism as an explanation of moral awareness that aims to explain the realist phenomenology of that experience when realist explanations of it fail. After developing an account of the mechanism of projectivism, this essay argues that a metaethical theory feature projectivism as its metaphysical element contrasts negatively with moral realism in several ways: e.g., if it postulates new mental states and more events to account for moral awareness, then its ontological economy is less certain; it does not solve a metaphysical problem, supervenience, that moral realism cannot; it is incompatible with desirable features of moral practice; it undermines Blackburn’s rejection of error theory. This essay then concludes that when assessing the dialectic between moral realism and non-cognitivist moral antirealism, it is inappropriate to presume a metaphysical advantage for the latter on the basis of the mere denial of the existence of moral properties. This suggests that non-cognitivist moral antirealists need to supplement their theories with more robust metaphysical research programs. v For Stacia. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Since defending my dissertation the preeminent emotion I have experienced is appreciation for all of the support and encouragement that I have received as I worked on this dissertation. Composing these acknowledgements marks the completion of my preparations to deposit this dissertation; I saved this task for last because it makes me glad to publicly thank the people who contributed to the successful completion of this project. I have been exceedingly fortunate to have Steven Cahn as my advisor. When I approached Professor Cahn about supervising my dissertation, I came to him with nothing but the bare notion that non-cognitivist moral antirealism is wrong. Professor Cahn helped me to tailor my project to Simon Blackburn’s version of moral antirealism, and discussions with him clarified my objections to it. Professor Cahn also demystified the process of researching and writing the dissertation; I have learned so much about scholarship from Professor Cahn, and I doubt I would have ever gotten this project off the ground without his sage advice. I owe a debt of gratitude to the rest of my committee, Stefan Baumrin and Rosamond Rhodes. Professor Baumrin’s generosity in reviewing and commenting on multiple drafts of this dissertation was more than I hoped for or had a right to. Professor Baumrin’s comments and references to texts I overlooked were enormously valuable; this work and I have been the beneficiaries of his encyclopedic knowledge of twentieth century philosophy. Between drafts of the dissertation, papers, and talks, Professor Rhodes has reviewed more of my philosophical work than any other person, and her exhortations to clarity ring in my ears; to whatever degree this dissertation achieves the goal of clarity, she deserves the credit. In addition, Professor Rhodes’ suggestion to see the vicissitudes of the dissertation process as fun challenges has vii buoyed me more than once. I cannot fully express how much my committee’s generosity and confidence in me and my project has served as an inspiration; I can only promise that they will be models for my career. This dissertation also bears the imprint of other members of the Graduate Center’s philosophy faculty. The readers of my dissertation, David Rosenthal and Peter Simpson, also deserve thanks; both were incredibly accommodating in scheduling the defense and their questions and comments at the defense have stimulated new ideas to research. My interest in realism-antirealism debates and how to think about them have benefitted from studying with Professors Alberto Cordero, Michael Devitt, and Steven Ross. I am grateful for their influence. My classmates at the Graduate Center are amazingly bright, and I cannot ignore how the friends I have made have been professionally and personally enriching. I want to thank Jason Altilio, Matias Bulnes, and Jean-David Lafrance. Teaching has been an enormous part of my education at CUNY; when you spend so much time with your classmates as colleagues, you cannot help but learn from them; to my Lehman College officemates, Carl Brownson, Leonard Finkelman, and Chris Sula: thank you, our casual conversations about philosophy and our projects has been formative. I have benefitted from my service as an ethics fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai under Professor Rhodes; discussing biomedical ethics with Nada Gligorov, a Graduate Center alumna, and my classmates, Steven Birnbaum, Katherine Mendis, and Carolyn Plunkett has challenged me to improve as a philosopher. Amanda Favia, Kyle Ferguson, and Lily Frank are also colleagues from Mount Sinai, and we have a shared an affinity for biomedical ethics and metaethics; conversations with them have shaped my thoughts and reinforced my confidence that the questions that interest in me are worth pursuing. viii I am unusually lucky to have a large group of friends from outside of graduate school that have been an escape from its pressures; I have unwound with them over coffee, wine, dinner, beer, the Mets, cocktails. I could not have done this without you, Sam Douglas, Terence Dwyer, Garth and Julia Graeper, Jen Hensley, Sang Lee, Brian Lennon, Vanessa Mae, Pat McDonough, Anne O’Neil-Henry, Mike Sclafani, and Vin Taddoni; next round is on me! I want to single out two friends. When I was working in finance, my friendship with Nathan Hensley was my connection to literature and philosophy, and our bar-closing conversations at the Kettle sustained my interest in them. We have continued this discussion from afar, and Nathan set a standard for being a graduate student I have tried to emulate. I want to acknowledge the influence of my late friend Steve King. When I started teaching at Lehman College, Steve carved me a lacquered sign for my office door: “Prof. Cummins, Philosophy.” When I protested that I wasn’t a professor, he simply said, “You will be, some day.” That sign hung over my desk at home, and on days when I wanted to abandon my dissertation and graduate school, it inspired me to fulfill Steve’s faith in me. Without my family’s support and love this dissertation would not have been possible. My brother-in-law, Ryan Casillo, and my parents-in-law, Harry and Kathleen Casillo, welcomed me, a philosophy graduate student, into their family with warmth and encouragement, and I can honestly say my in-laws are great. On each of his birthdays my brother Mark remains the best- read person his age I know, and when I have called him to talk about it he has never failed to impress me with his insights on my dissertation. The hardest part about graduate school is that Mark has been living in Los Angeles for most of it, but even so, I have known his support every day.
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