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Mistaken Morality? Mistaken Morality? An Essay on Moral Error Theory Emma Beckman Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies Umeå 2018 Umeå Studies in Philosophy 12 © Emma Beckman 2018 Series editor: Pär Sundström Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies Umeå University SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden This work is protected by the Swedish Copyright Legislation (Act 1960:729) Dissertation for PhD ISBN: 978-91-7601-847-7 ISSN: 1650-1748 Front cover: Photo by Emma Beckman, 2011. Electronic version available at: http://umu.diva-portal.org/ Printed by: UmU Print Service Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden 2018 Distributor: Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden For Tony Abstract This dissertation explores arguments and questions related to moral error theory – the idea that morality inevitably involves a fundamental and serious error such that moral judgments and statements never come out true. It is suggested that the truth of error theory remains a non-negligible possibility, and that we for this reason should take a version of moral fictionalism seriously. I begin by defining error theory as the claim that moral judgments are beliefs with moral propositions as content, moral utterances are assertions of moral propositions, and no positive moral proposition is true. Second, after giving an account of J.L. Mackie’s error theory, I argue that neither Richard Joyce’s nor Jonas Olson’s argument for error theory gives us strong reasons to believe it. According to Joyce, moral discourse presupposes non-institutional desire-transcendent reasons and non-institutional categorical requirements. I challenge this claim by arguing that morality can be understood as an institution, and that the assumption that there are non-institutional moral reasons and requirements can be understood as entering pragmatically into moral conversations. According to Olson, moral discourse involves a commitment to irreducibly normative favoring relations between facts and actions. I challenge this claim by challenging Olson’s response to Stephen Finlay’s argument against absolutist accounts of moral discourse. Third, I discuss two objections to error theory, and argue that neither gives us strong reasons to reject it. According to the first objection, which is suggested by Terence Cuneo, error theory entails epistemic error theory, which has problematic consequences. After indicating some possible responses on part of the epistemic error theorist, I challenge the entailment claim by defending Hilary Kornblith’s account of epistemic reasons as hypothetical reasons. According to the second objection, error theory entails normative error theory, which cannot be believed. Although he does not defend this objection, Bart Streumer has given an argument for the unbelievability claim. I challenge Streumer’s argument by suggesting that we might have hypothetical reasons to believe normative error theory and that, properly understood, Streumer’s conclusion is not as radical as it may first appear. Fourth, I discuss what practical implications the discovery that error theory is true would have for first-order moral thinking and discourse. I argue that if this practice is overall non-morally valuable to us, we ought to revise i engagement in it on the model of role-playing in live action role-playing games if we find out that error theory is true. Some have claimed that Richard Joyce’s fictionalism encounters (prima facie) problems. I argue that by incorporating the suggestion that engagement in revised moral practice is modeled on role- playing, fictionalism can escape these problems and preserve the benefits of first-order moral practice. Keywords: moral error theory, Mackie, Joyce, Olson, normative institution, fictionalism, normative error theory, epistemic error theory, irreducible normativity, abolitionism, conservationism, propagandism. ii Acknowledgements A vise person once said that the greatest gift you can give someone is a portion of your time. During my years as a doctoral student, I have been spoiled. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Gunnar Björnsson, for all the time and energy he has spent on sharing his philosophical expertise with me. I am grateful for all his insightful and constructive feedback and suggestions, both on my manuscript and on my dissertation project as a whole. I would also like to thank him for believing in this project, and for his meticulousness, patience and perseverance, without which I am certain that this dissertation would never have been finished. I would also like to express my gratitude to Sten Lindström and Pär Sundström. Sten was my advisor up and until his retirement in 2012 and has since then been my assistant advisor. Pär has been my assistant advisor throughout my time as a doctoral student. I would like to thank them for encouraging me to start writing about error theory, for all their constructive feedback and suggestions, and for keeping in touch after I left Umeå. During my years in Umeå, I regularly presented drafts of my manuscript at seminars hosted by the department. I would like to thank those who participated with comments and ideas on these occasions. In addition to Gunnar, Sten and Pär, this includes my colleagues Anders Berglund, Petra Green, Kalle Grill, Ebba Gullberg, Peter Karlsson, Lars Lindblom, Jonas Nilsson, Mats Wahlberg, Lars-Daniel Öhman, Jesper Östman, Lars Samuelsson, Bertil Strömberg, Erik Svärd-Bäcklin and Inge-Bert Täljedal. Over the years, I have also presented parts of my manuscript at conferences in Gothenburg, Milan, Linköping and Uppsala. I would like to thank everyone who shared their thoughts on my material with me on these occasions. Ragnar Francén-Olinder and Jonas Olson who have both, at different stages of the writing-process, read my manuscript in its entirety, and discussed it with me at seminars hosted by the department. I am grateful for all their helpful comments and suggestions, and for travelling to Umeå to discuss my manuscript with me. I would also like to thank Jan Andersson, Bo Petersson, Caj Strandberg and Frans Svensson who have, on different occasions, read and commented on parts of my manuscript. Bo was my advisor and teacher at Linköping University. I would like to thank him for encouraging me to continue studying philosophy, and for convincing me that I could do it. I would also like iii to thank Jan, who was my teacher at Folkungaskolan in Linköping, for introducing me to philosophy. In the autumn of 2012 and early spring of 2013, I was a visiting scholar at University of Southern California. I would like to thank Stephen Finlay, Gunnar Björnsson, The Sweden America Foundation, and everyone else who contributed to making this educating and in many ways rewarding experience possible. Parts of chapters 3 through 6 have been proofread by Semantix. This was made possible by a grant from the department, for which I am grateful. For making my years in Umeå fun and colorful, I would like to thank Ida Brandt, Karin Bristav, Sandra Dahlin, Jennifer Forssell, Radoslaw Grabowski, Anna Josefson Ekegren and Tomas Karlsson. A special thanks to Tomas for his encouragement during the final months. For staying in touch during my years in Umeå and overseas, I would like to thank Lina Eneberg, Jenny Linde, Hanna Lundin, Marcus Lönebrink, Evelina Marklund and Nils Rutstam. A special thanks to Lina for visiting me in Los Angeles. For all the laughs and good advice, I would like to thank my aunts, my uncle and my cousins. For sharing their wisdom on life, and for their warm hearts, I would like to thank my grandmothers, Greta and Ulla. My mother, Ann-Brit, my father, Ulf, my brother, Carl, and their families, have supported me in each way imaginable during my years as a doctoral student. I am deeply grateful for all their loving encouragement, for checking in on me every day, for all the lunches, and most of all for believing in me when I did not do so myself. This dissertation is dedicated to Tony. I am grateful for his love and affection, for making me laugh every day, for his antics, for always keeping his cool, and for his constant encouragement and support. But most of all, I am grateful that he has taken me for the greatest adventure of my life. Emma Beckman Linköping, April 2018 iv Contents Abstract ............................................................................................... i Acknowledgements........................................................................... iii 1 Introduction ................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background .............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Aim .......................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Outline of the dissertation ...................................................................................... 4 2 Moral error theory ......................................................................... 9 2.1 Error theory............................................................................................................. 9 Cognitivism ...................................................................................................... 10 Failure .............................................................................................................. 14 2.2 Wide error theory.................................................................................................
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