Review of Intuitionism by David Kaspar

Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU

Philosophy & Comparative Religion Department Faculty Publications Philosophy & Comparative Religion Department

2013

William Simkulet Cleveland State University, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clphil_facpub

Part of the Philosophy Commons How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Publisher's Statement This review first appeared in Metapsychology Online Reviews, Vol. 17, Issue 31, July 2013. http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=book&id=6926&cn=394

Repository Citation Simkulet, William, "Review of Intuitionism by David Kaspar" (2013). Philosophy & Comparative Religion Department Faculty Publications. 16. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clphil_facpub/16

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy & Comparative Religion Department at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy & Comparative Religion Department Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 11/25/2015 Review Intuitionism Philosophy

Home Browse Subjects Search New Reviews About Us Feedback Select Topic

PHILOSOPHY

Review Intuitionism RESOURCES by David Kaspar Bloomsbury Academic, email page print page Share 2012 All Topic Reviews Like 2 Review by William Simkulet A Theory of Feelings Jul 30th 2013 (Volume 17, "My Madness Saved Me" Tweet Issue 31) 10 Good Questions about Life and Death 12 Modern Philosophers 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God A Case for Irony A Companion to Bioethics Intuitionism is the theory that our moral A Companion to Foucault intuitions are mostly correct; this is to say A Companion to Genethics that the majority of our moral beliefs that A Companion to Genethics are founded on our moral intuitions A Companion to Hume accurately capture genuine moral truths A Companion to Kant about the world. In Intuitionism, David A Companion to Phenomenology and Kaspar advocates a stronger theory of Existentialism intuitionism, according to which our A Companion to Pragmatism Fire, 7" Display, A Companion to the Philosophy of Action intuitions are always correct; he argues A Companion to the Philosophy of WiFi, 8 GB ... that each of knows what the right thing to Biology $49.99 do even if we don't believe that we do. A Companion to the Philosophy of Literature Shop now A Conceptual History of Psychology Kaspar assumes that strong intuitionism is true and asks what a Welcome to MHN's unique book review completed intuitionist theory would look RELATED TOPICS like. He believes that science can serve as site Metapsychology. We feature over 7400 a model for philosophers. One popular Addiction & Alcoholism criticism of philosophy in general, and Anxiety & Panic indepth reviews of a moral philosophy in particular, is that it Art and Photography wide range of books contemporary philosophers are no closer to Audio Books and DVDs written by Childhood Disorders discovering truth than those who came our reviewers from Children and Teens many backgrounds centuries before. In contrast, Kaspar Client Reviews and perspectives. We contends, science builds upon scientific Depression discoveries and thinkers of the past. There Ethics update our front page is a general consensus that contemporary Fiction weekly and add more scientific theories are closer to getting it General Topics than thirty new right about the world than those that came Genetics and Evolution reviews each month. Grief, Loss, Death & Dying before it. To support this claim, Kaspar Our editor is Christian Medications & Psychiatry Perring, PhD. To cites how in physics Newton's laws are said Memoirs and Biographies contact him, use the to cover macroscopic objects, Einstein's Mental Health laws gravity, Bohr's laws quantum events, Movies & DVDs form available here. Personality Disorders so forth and so on. A completed Can't remember our intuitionist theory, he contends, will follow Philosophy Psychoanalysis URL? Access our science's lead, and incorporate the Psychology reviews directly via strengths of various intuitionist and ethicist Psychotherapy 'metapsychology.net' theories; he then provides a laundry list of Relationships disparate normative theories that he Religion believes would be part of a completed SelfHelp Metapsychology Online intuitionist theory of ethics. Sexuality reviewers normally Wellness and Complementary Medicine receive gratis review copies of the items they review. Roughly, Kaspar is suggesting that the complete intuitionist theory is one Metapsychology Online that is comprised of the most appealing aspects of normative theories from the receives a commission past. This approach is not necessarily as ad hoc as it may appear, though, as most from Amazon.com for http://metapsmycohroalolg yp.mhielnotasloheplph.enerts/p otcr/eviaetw _mdoocr.pahlp ?intytpue=itbioonks& ida=s6 9p2l6a&ycinn=g39 a4 privileged role in their 1/3 11/25/2015 Review Intuitionism Philosophy moral philosophers treat moral intuitions as playing a privileged role in their purchases through this theory, counting consistency with moral intuitions as evidence of their theory's site, which helps us worth. Because intuitionism asserts that our moral intuitions give us moral send review copies to knowledge, any elements of a normative theory that are said to be consistent with reviewers. Please our moral intuitions are candidates for a complete intuitionist theory of ethics. support us by However, there are two substantive aspects of Kaspar's approach that undermine making your his efforts. Amazon.com purchases through our Amazon links. We thank you for your First, it appears as if Kaspar's appeal to great thinkers in ethics is inconsistent. For example, he rejects the idea of an overarching supreme moral support! principle that is capable of determining what the right thing to do in any given situation. However, many prominent normative ethicists have the intuition that, Join our email list!: there are a finite number of moral laws often times a single supreme moral Metapsychology principle that would be capable of telling us how to act in any given situation. New Review Furthermore, ethicists have good reasons to believe this intuition is correct; two Announcements: reasons stand out: (1) a supreme moral principle is more ontologically Sent out monthly, parsimonious than multiple principles, and far more parsimonious (and practical) these announcements than an infinite number of moral principles, and (2) ethics is understood as the list our recent branch of philosophy concerned with answering the question "What is the right thing reviews. To subscribe, to do?" for any given situation. A supreme moral principle would be one that could click here. answer this question for any situation we might face ourselves in. To know the supreme principle, then, is to know what the right thing to do is no matter what Interested in situation you find yourself in. By dismissing our intuitions about a supreme moral becoming a book principle, Kaspar rejects the fundamental tenant of his strong intuitionism that our reviewer for intuitions capture moral truth. Metapsychology? Currently, we especially need thoughtful Second Kaspar seems confused about the relationship between the laws of reviewers for books physics; Newton's laws of motion are theories about the world as a whole, not in fiction, selfhelp merely the macroscopic objects. The problem is that these laws are demonstrably and popular false when we apply them to the subatomic level. Given that humans primarily psychology. To interact with macroscopic objects, Newton's laws are instrumentally valuable tools, apply, write to our but they fail to capture genuine laws of nature. We don't know the laws of nature. editor. Indeed, Scientists have long looked for a unifying scientific theory that explained all physical phenomena at all levels with the accuracy that Newton's, Bohr's, and Metapsychology Einstein's describe crude subsections of nature; such a theory would be a complete theory about the laws of nature. Online Reviews

Kaspar's goal is to construct a complete intuitionist theory, which if true would capture the actual moral law or laws that govern our world; but he treats Promote your contemporary science as a model for constructing such a theory despite the fact Page too that contemporary scientific theories, like Newton's laws, are generally accepted to do just about everything but capture the actual natural laws that govern our world. Metapsychology Online Reviews ISSN 19315716

Kaspar's discussion of intuitionism is, at times, compelling, but unfortunately Follow @metapsych there is a substantial oversight that undermines his effort: This book is missing a thorough discussion of knowledge. The central thesis of strong intuitionism is that each of us knows what the right thing to do is even if we don't know that we know. Unfortunately the author devotes less than a page (52) to the topic, asserting that knowledge is merely justified true belief. However it is generally accepted by epistemologists, or knowledge theorists, that Gettiercases, named for a case presented by Edmund Gettier, constitute counterexamples to this otherwise commonsense theory of knowledge. In the traditional Gettier case, an agent comes to have a true belief that they are justified in having, but their justification is a red herring that has no relationship to the truthmaking aspect of the belief. It is generally accepted that in these cases, agents lack knowledge despite having justified, true beliefs. In the same way that there is substantive disagreement between moral philosophers, there is substantive disagreement between epistemologists on what constitutes knowledge.

Many epistemologists agree that although the definition of knowledge as justified true belief is false, it is probably close enough to describe most of the scenarios we deal with in our everyday lives; of course the same can be said for Newton's laws, although they don't capture true natural laws, most of us will get along just swell by applying Newton's laws as if they were true. But just as the http://metapsaymchaolloggay.mme notfa lhNeelpw.netot/pno'cs/v lieaww_sdo, cB.pohph?rty'spe l=abwoosk,& iad=n6d9 2E6i&ncsnt=e3i9n4's laws don't capture the 2/3 11/25/2015 Review Intuitionism Philosophy amalgam of Newton's laws, Bohr's laws, and Einstein's laws don't capture the natural laws, we have no reason to think the amalgam of moral theories Kaspar strings together captures the moral laws that govern the actual world.

William Simkulet, Applied and Professional Ethics at University of Kansas

http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=book&id=6926&cn=394 3/3