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Naturalizing Metaethics Jesse Prinz

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Naturalizing Metaethics Jesse Prinz Naturalizing Metaethics Jesse Prinz Decades ago, it was suggested that epistemology could be naturalized, meaning, ,uthor roughly, that it could be treated as an empirically-informed psychological inquiry. In more recent years, there has been a concerted effort to naturalize ethics, with a Jesse Prinz focus on questions in moral psychology, and occasional normative ethics. ess ef- #esse-subcorte%.com fort has been put into the naturalization of metaethics: the study of what, if any- thing, ma"es moral #udgments true. $he discussion presents a systematic overview City /niversity of )ew 0or" of core questions in metaethics, and argues that each of these can be illuminated )ew 0or", )0, /.+.A. by psychological research. $hese include questions about realism, e%pressivism, error theory, and relativism. &etaethics is beholden to moral psychology, and .ommentator moral psychology can be studied empirically. $he primary goal is to establish em- pirical tractability, but, in so doing, the paper also ta"es a provisional stance on 0ann 1ilhelm core questions, defending a view that is relativist, sub#ective, and emotionally ywilhelm-students.uni-mainz.de grounded. Johannes 2utenberg-Universit3t &ainz, 2ermany Keywords Error theory ( '%pressivism ( &etaethics ( &oral realism ( )aturalism ( *elativ- 'ditors ism ( +entimentalism $homas &etzinger metzinger -uni-mainz.de Johannes 2utenberg-Universit3t &ainz, 2ermany Jennifer &. 1indt #ennifer.windt-monash.edu &onash /niversity &elbourne, Australia 1 Introduction will not present these results in detail here. My goal is programmatic& $ seek to establish Moral philosophy has taken an empirical turn, the empirical tractability of metaethics. ome with experimental results being brought to of the experiments $ describe are exploratory bear on core questions in moral psychology pilot studies, presented in an effort to motiv% (e.g., is altruism motivated by empathy?) and ate more research. 'ven with such preliminary normative ethics (e.g., how plausible are the results, we will see that some metaethical the% presuppositions of virtue theory?). ome of ories already en!oy greater empirical support the recent empirical work also bears on core than others. $ will argue that the best%suppor% questions in metaethics. Metaethical questions ted theory at this stage of inquiry is a form of are varied, but they broadly concern the relativist sentimentalism. (efending this posi% foundations of moral !udgments. "hat is the tion is subsidiary to my primary goal of ad% basis of such !udgments? "hat, if anything, vertising the value of empirical methods in could render them true? #ere $ will argue that metaethical theori)ing. *here has already these questions can be empirically addressed, been an empirical turn in ethics, but and longstanding debates between leading metaethics has been less explicitly targeted by metaethical theories may ultimately be settled these new approaches. experimentally. $ will describe empirical res% *alking about +an empirical turn, clearly ults that bear on core metaethical questions. $ alludes to another turn in the recent history of Prinz, J. 456789. )aturalizing &etaethics. In $. &etzinger : J. &. 1indt 4'ds9. Open MIND: ;64$9. <ran"furt am &ain! &I)D 2roup. doi! 10.78865=>?@;>8@8?6877 1 | 5? www.open-mind.net philosophy& the linguistic turn. "hen philosoph% ".V.3. 4uine, who grew skeptical about philo% ers turned their attention to language, there sophi)ing through linguistic analysis, and em% was an effort to recast philosophical problems phasi)ed the empricial revisability of philosoph% as linguistic in nature. - new set of technical ical claims (5676). 4uine drew on the methods tools was brought into the field& formal se% of /ohn (ewey, and insisted that +knowledge, mantics. Logic has been part of philosophy his% mind, and meaning 89: are to be studied in the torically, but after the linguistic turn it was per% same empricial spirit that animates nautral sci% ceived to be an essential component of philo% ence, (5676, p. 26). More succinctly, methodolo% sophical training. /ust as formal semantics in% gical naturalism can be defined as follows& creased philosophical precision with the lin% guistic turn, empirical methods have dramatic% Methodological naturalism <(f the view ally augmented our tool chest, and stubborn de% that we should study a domain using em% bates may begin to give way. The empirical turn pirical methods. is as momentous as the linguistic turn, and per% haps even more so. 0ormal semantics allowed us *his is the kind of naturalism that has long to articulate differences between theories, and been advocated, but too rarely followed, in the empirical methods provide new opportunities domain of epistemology (=ornblith 56>?). for theory confirmation. Neither turn rendered Neither metaphysical nor semantic naturalism traditional approaches to philosophy idle, but are equivalent to methodological naturalism. rather supplemented them. "ithin metaethics, Metaphysical naturalism is a view about what this supplementation may offer the best hope of exists, not about how to study it. $ndeed, some settling which competing theories are true. non-naturalists in this metaphysical sense be% $n calling for a naturalist metaethics, it is lieve that empirical methods can be used to important to avoid confusion with two other study non-physical or supernatural entities. e% views. “Naturalism” is sometimes construed as a mantic naturalism is a view about how to state metaphysical thesis, and also sometimes as a se% theories (vi)., in reductionist terms), but practi% mantic thesis. Metaphysically, +naturalism” tioners have rarely used empirical science in de% refers to the view that everything that exists fense of such theories (consider so-called natur% belongs to the natural world, as opposed to the alistic semantics). Methodological naturalism non-natural, or supernatural world. *his is has been deployed in discussions of both first% sometimes presented as a synonym for physical% order ethics (e.g., Brandt 56?6A 0lanagan 5665A ism, which can be defined as the view that the (oris 566>A Breene ;CCD) and in metaethics world described by the physical sciences is com% (e.g., Eailton 566FA Grin) 2007b). As Eailton plete, in that any physical duplicate of this points out, a naturalist methodology could res% world would be a duplicate simpliciter. *he ult in a reductionist theory of morality, but it causal closure of the physical world and the suc% need not (see also Boyd 56>>). $n principle, sci% cess of physical science are taken as evidence for ence could support traditional intuitionism, this metaphysical view. emantic naturalism at% which is not naturalistic in either of these other tempts to reductively analy)e concepts from one senses. domain in terms of another, which is considered more likely to be natural in a metaphysical 1.1 Methodological preamble sense. $n philosophy of mind, this might involve defining psychological concepts in neural or Ghilosophy has always been methodologically causal terms, while in ethics it might involve de% pluralistic. ome use intuitions to arrive at ne% fining moral properties in terms of psycholo% cessary and sufficient conditions for the applica% gical, logical, or social terms (such as hedonic tion of concepts (e.g., Glato’s early dialogues). states, principles of reason, or social contracts). ome try to systemati)e and revise a large set Here $ will be concerned with methodogical nat% of beliefs using reflective equilibrium (e.g., uralism, which has recent roots in the work of Eawls on !ustice). ome use transcendental ar% Prinz, J. 456789. )aturalizing &etaethics. In $. &etzinger : J. &. 1indt 4'ds9. Open MIND: ;64$9. <ran"furt am &ain! &I)D 2roup. doi! 10.78865=>?@;>8@8?6877 2 | 5? www.open-mind.net guments to figure out preconditions for thought draws on the psychology of decision-making, and action (e.g., =ant). ome use aphorisms or and philosophy of mind, which has drawn on stories to reveal facts about ourselves or to envi% psychology, computer science, and artificial in% sion possible alternatives (e.g., Niet)sche and telligence. 3ver the last decade, empirical meth% the existentialist tradition). ome propose his% ods have also become widely used, and widely torical analyses of prevailing institutions and contested, in ethics. values (e.g., Hobbes, Eousseau, and 0oucault). *he resistance to empirical methods in ome disclose hidden social forces that buffer ethics is often chalked up to the fact that ethics prevailing categories (e.g., Marilyn 0rye on is a normative domain, and empirical methods gender). Some analy)e case studies (e.g., Kuhn), provide descriptive results. *his can only be probe the structure of experience (e.g., Husserl), part of the story, however, as there has been or propose formali)ations (e.g., 0rege). *hese little uptake of empirical methods in and other methods suggest that philosophy is a metaethics. Metaethics is a descriptive domainA many-splendored thing, and among its many it does not tell us how to act morally, but forms one can also find the deployment of em% rather explores the semantic commitments and pirical results. 'xamples include (escartes and metaphysical foundations of such claims. $ sus% /ames on the emotions, Merleau%Gonty on em% pect the reason for resistance is less interesting bodiment, and "ittgenstein on aspect percep% and more sociological. Gsychology is a young tion. 'mpirical observations have often guided profession, which grew out of philosophy and philosophical inquiry. Locke was
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