Is Moral Perception Essentially Rule-Governed? A Critical Assessment of Generalism and a Limited Defense of Particularism
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Abstract
Moral perception, for the purposes of this article, is taken to be the perception of moral properties, unless contexts dictate otherwise. While both particularists and generalists agree that we can perceive the moral properties of an action or a feature, they disagree, however, over whether rules play any essential role in moral perception. The particularists argue for a ‘no’ answer, whereas the generalists say ‘yes’. In this paper, I provide a limited defense of particularism by rebutting several powerful generalist arguments. It is hoped particularism can thus be made more attractive as a theory of moral perception. Positive arguments for particularism will also be provided along the way
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Tsu, P. S.-H. (2020). Is Moral Perception Essentially Rule-Governed? A Critical Assessment of Generalism and a Limited Defense of Particularism. Crítica. Revista Hispanoamericana De Filosofía, 52(156), 31–57. https://doi.org/10.22201/iifs.18704905e.2020.1222
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References
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Bagnoli, Carla, 2011, “Moral Perception and Knowledge by Principles”, New Intuitionism, Jill Hernandez (ed.), Continuum, New York, pp. 84–105.
Bergqvist, Anna and Robert Cowan (comps.), 2018, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
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Boder, Margaret (comp.), The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Brewer, Talbot, 2000, The Bounds of Choice, Garland Publishing, New York.
Breyer, Thiemo and Christopher Gutland (comps.), Phenomenology of Thinking, Routledge, New York.
Broakes, Justin (comp.), 2012, Iris Murdoch: Philosopher, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Chudnoff, Elijah, 2016, “Moral Perception: High-level Perception or Lowlevel Intuition?”, in Thiemo Breyer and Christopher Gutland (eds.), Phenomenology of Thinking, New York, Routledge, pp. 207–219.
Churchland, Paul, 2000, “Rules, Know-How, and the Future of Moral Cognition”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 26, pp. 291–306.
Clark, Andy, 2000, “Word and Action: Reconciling Rules and Know-how in Moral Cognition”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 26, pp. 267–289.
Clark, Andy, 1996, “Connectionism, Moral Cognition, and Collaborative Problem Solving”, in Larry May et al. (eds.), Mind and Morals, MIT, Cambridge, M.A., pp. 109–127.
Clarke, Bridget, 2012, “Iris Murdoch and the Prospects for Critical Moral Perception”, in Justin Broakes (ed.), Iris Murdoch: Philosopher, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 196–253.
Cowan, Robert, 2014, “Cognitive Penetrability and Ethical Perception”, Review of Philosophy and Psychology, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 665–682.
Cullison, Andrew, 2009, “Moral Perception”, European Journal of Philosophy, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 159–175.
Cullity, Garrett, 2002, “Particularism and Moral Theory: Particularism and Presumptive Reasons”, Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, vol. 76, issue 1, pp. 169–190.
Dancy, Jonathan, 2010, “Moral Perception”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume, vol. 84, no. 1, pp. 99–117.
Dancy, Jonathan, 2004, Ethics Without Principles, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Dancy, Jonathan, 1999, “Can a Particularist Learn the Difference Between Right and Wrong?”, The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, vol. 1, pp. 59–72.
Dancy, Jonathan, 1993, Moral Reasons, Blackwell, Oxford.
Dancy, Jonathan, 1983, “Ethical Particularism and Morally Relevant Properties”, Mind, vol. 92, no. 368, pp. 530–547.
Darwall, Stephen, 1998, Philosophical Ethics, Westview, Colorado.
Dennett, Daniel, 1992, “Cognitive Wheels: The Frame Problem of AI”, in Margaret Boder (ed.), The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 147–170.
Driver, Julia, 2012, “ ‘For Every Foot Its Own Shoe’: Method and Moral Theory in the Philosophy of Iris Murdoch”, in Justin Broakes (ed.), Iris Murdoch: Philosopher, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 293–305.
Faraci, David, 2015, “A Hard Look at Moral Perception”, Philosophical Studies, vol. 172, no. 8, pp. 2055–2072.
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Jackson, Frank, Philip Pettit and Michael Smith, 2000, “Ethical Particularism and Patterns”, in Brad Hooker and Margaret Little (eds.), Moral Particularism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 79–99.
Jacobson, Daniel, 2005, “Seeing by Feeling: Virtues, Skills, and Moral Perception”, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, vol. 8, pp. 387–409.
Kagan, Shelly, 2001, “Thinking about Cases”, Social Philosophy and Policy, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 44–63.
Korsgaard, Christine, 1996, “Kant’s Formula of Humanity”, Creating the Kingdom of Ends, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 106–132.
Kukla, Rebecca, 2002, “Attention and Blindness: Objectivity and Contingency in Moral Perception”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 28, pp. 319–346.
LaFollette, Hugh and Niall Shanks, 1993, “Belief and the Basis of Humor”, American Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 329–339.
May, Larry et al. (comps.), Mind and Morals, MIT, Cambridge, M.A.
McBrayer, Justin, 2010, “Moral Perception and the Causal Objection”, Ratio, vol. 23, pp. 291–307.
McDowell, John, 2002a, “Virtue and Reason”, in Mind, Value and Reality, Harvard University Press, Massachusetts, pp. 50–73.
McBrayer, Justin, 2002b, “Non-cognitivism and Rule-following”, in Mind, Value and Reality, Harvard University Press, Mass., pp. 198–218.
McGrath, Sarah, 2018, “Moral Perception and Its Rivals”, in Anna Bergqvist and Robert Cowan (eds.), Evaluative Perception, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 161–169.
McGrath, Sarah, 2004, “Moral Knowledge by Perception”, Philosophical Perspectives, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 209–228.
McGregor, Rafe, 2015, “Making Sense of Moral Perception”, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, vol. 18, pp. 745–758.
McKeever, Sean and Michael Ridge, 2006, Principled Ethics: Generalism as a Regulative Ideal, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
McNaughton, David, 1988, Moral Vision, Blackwell, Oxford.
Millgram, Elijah, 2005, “Murdoch, Practical Reasoning, and Particularism”, Ethics Done Right, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 168–197.
Mower, Deborah et al. (comps.), Developing Moral Sensitivity, Routledge, London.
Mower, Deborah and David McGraw, 2015, “The Normativity of Moral Sensitivity”,
in Deborah Mower et al. (eds.), Developing Moral Sensitivity, Routledge, London, pp. 264–279.
Murdoch, Iris, 1991, Sovereignty of Good, Routledge, New York.
Nussbaum, Martha, 2001, “Non-Scientific Deliberation”, The Fragility of Goodness, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 290–317.
Nussbaum, Martha, 1992, “Finely Aware and Richly Responsible: Literature and the Moral Imagination”, Love’s Knowledge, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 148–167.
Ridge, Michael and Sean McKeever, 2016, “Moral Particularism and Moral Generalism”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/moral-particularism-generalism/ [date of consultation: 04/11/2020]
Smuts, Aaron, 2010, “The Ethics of Humor: Can Your Sense of Humor Be Wrong?”, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, vol. 13, pp. 333–347.
Stratton-Lake, Philip, 2000, Kant, Duty and Moral Worth, Routledge, New York.
Tsu, Peter Shiu-Hwa, 2018, ‘Particularism in Ethics’, in Duncan Pritchard (ed.), Oxford Bibliographies Online, Oxford University Press, Oxford,
http://oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-97801953965
77/obo-9780195396577-0367.xml [date of consultation: 04/11/2020]
Tsu, Peter Shiu-Hwa, 2013, “Shapelessness and Predication Supervenience: A Limited Defense of Shapeless Moral Particularism”, Philosophical Studies, vol. 166, no. 1, pp. 51–67.
Väyrynen, Pekka, 2018a, “Reasons and Mora Principles”, in Daniel Star (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Reasons and Normativity, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 839–861.
Väyrynen, Pekka, 2018b, “Doubts about Moral Perception”, Evaluative Perception, in Anna Bergqvist and Robert Cowan (eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 109–128.
Väyrynen, Pekka, 2008, “Usable Moral Principles”, in Mark Lance et al. (eds.), Challenging Moral Particularism, Routledge, London.
Watkins, Michael and Kelly Jolley, 2002, “Pollyanna Realism: Moral Perception and Moral Properties”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 80, no. 1, pp. 75–85.
Werner, Preston, 2020, “Moral Perception”, Philosophy Compass.
(doi:10.1111/phc3.12640)
Werner, Preston, 2018, “Moral Perception without (Prior) Moral Knowledge”, The Journal of Moral Philosophy, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 164–181.
Wisnewski, J., 2015, “The Case for Moral Perception”, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, vol. 14, pp. 129–148.
Wodak, Daniel, 2019, “Moral Perception, Inference, and Intuition”, Philosophical Studies, vol. 176, no. 6, pp. 1495–1512.
Bagnoli, Carla, 2011, “Moral Perception and Knowledge by Principles”, New Intuitionism, Jill Hernandez (ed.), Continuum, New York, pp. 84–105.
Bergqvist, Anna and Robert Cowan (comps.), 2018, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Blum, Lawrence, 1991, “Moral Perception and Particularity”, Ethics, vol. 101, no. 4, pp. 701–725.
Boder, Margaret (comp.), The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Brewer, Talbot, 2000, The Bounds of Choice, Garland Publishing, New York.
Breyer, Thiemo and Christopher Gutland (comps.), Phenomenology of Thinking, Routledge, New York.
Broakes, Justin (comp.), 2012, Iris Murdoch: Philosopher, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Chudnoff, Elijah, 2016, “Moral Perception: High-level Perception or Lowlevel Intuition?”, in Thiemo Breyer and Christopher Gutland (eds.), Phenomenology of Thinking, New York, Routledge, pp. 207–219.
Churchland, Paul, 2000, “Rules, Know-How, and the Future of Moral Cognition”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 26, pp. 291–306.
Clark, Andy, 2000, “Word and Action: Reconciling Rules and Know-how in Moral Cognition”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 26, pp. 267–289.
Clark, Andy, 1996, “Connectionism, Moral Cognition, and Collaborative Problem Solving”, in Larry May et al. (eds.), Mind and Morals, MIT, Cambridge, M.A., pp. 109–127.
Clarke, Bridget, 2012, “Iris Murdoch and the Prospects for Critical Moral Perception”, in Justin Broakes (ed.), Iris Murdoch: Philosopher, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 196–253.
Cowan, Robert, 2014, “Cognitive Penetrability and Ethical Perception”, Review of Philosophy and Psychology, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 665–682.
Cullison, Andrew, 2009, “Moral Perception”, European Journal of Philosophy, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 159–175.
Cullity, Garrett, 2002, “Particularism and Moral Theory: Particularism and Presumptive Reasons”, Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, vol. 76, issue 1, pp. 169–190.
Dancy, Jonathan, 2010, “Moral Perception”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume, vol. 84, no. 1, pp. 99–117.
Dancy, Jonathan, 2004, Ethics Without Principles, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Dancy, Jonathan, 1999, “Can a Particularist Learn the Difference Between Right and Wrong?”, The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, vol. 1, pp. 59–72.
Dancy, Jonathan, 1993, Moral Reasons, Blackwell, Oxford.
Dancy, Jonathan, 1983, “Ethical Particularism and Morally Relevant Properties”, Mind, vol. 92, no. 368, pp. 530–547.
Darwall, Stephen, 1998, Philosophical Ethics, Westview, Colorado.
Dennett, Daniel, 1992, “Cognitive Wheels: The Frame Problem of AI”, in Margaret Boder (ed.), The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 147–170.
Driver, Julia, 2012, “ ‘For Every Foot Its Own Shoe’: Method and Moral Theory in the Philosophy of Iris Murdoch”, in Justin Broakes (ed.), Iris Murdoch: Philosopher, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 293–305.
Faraci, David, 2015, “A Hard Look at Moral Perception”, Philosophical Studies, vol. 172, no. 8, pp. 2055–2072.
Flanagan, Owen (2015), “Foreword: Three Kinds of Moral Sensitivity”, in Deborah Mower et al. (eds.), Developing Moral Sensitivity, Routledge, London, pp. 9–14.
Garfield, Jay, 2000, “Particularity and Principle”, in Brad Hooker and Margaret Little (eds.), Moral Particularism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 178–204.
George, Shane and C.L. Richardson, 2019, “The Feministecles: A Dialogue on Humor and Sexism”, Israeli Journal for Humor Research, vol. 8, no. 1.
Herman, Barbara, 1985, “The Practice of Moral Judgment”, The Journal of Philosophy, vol. 82, no. 8, pp. 414–436.
Hernandez, Jill (comp.), 2011, New Intuitionism, Continuum, New York.
Hooker, Brad and Margaret Little (comps.), 2000, Moral Particularism, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Jackson, Frank, Philip Pettit and Michael Smith, 2000, “Ethical Particularism and Patterns”, in Brad Hooker and Margaret Little (eds.), Moral Particularism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 79–99.
Jacobson, Daniel, 2005, “Seeing by Feeling: Virtues, Skills, and Moral Perception”, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, vol. 8, pp. 387–409.
Kagan, Shelly, 2001, “Thinking about Cases”, Social Philosophy and Policy, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 44–63.
Korsgaard, Christine, 1996, “Kant’s Formula of Humanity”, Creating the Kingdom of Ends, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 106–132.
Kukla, Rebecca, 2002, “Attention and Blindness: Objectivity and Contingency in Moral Perception”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 28, pp. 319–346.
LaFollette, Hugh and Niall Shanks, 1993, “Belief and the Basis of Humor”, American Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 329–339.
May, Larry et al. (comps.), Mind and Morals, MIT, Cambridge, M.A.
McBrayer, Justin, 2010, “Moral Perception and the Causal Objection”, Ratio, vol. 23, pp. 291–307.
McDowell, John, 2002a, “Virtue and Reason”, in Mind, Value and Reality, Harvard University Press, Massachusetts, pp. 50–73.
McBrayer, Justin, 2002b, “Non-cognitivism and Rule-following”, in Mind, Value and Reality, Harvard University Press, Mass., pp. 198–218.
McGrath, Sarah, 2018, “Moral Perception and Its Rivals”, in Anna Bergqvist and Robert Cowan (eds.), Evaluative Perception, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 161–169.
McGrath, Sarah, 2004, “Moral Knowledge by Perception”, Philosophical Perspectives, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 209–228.
McGregor, Rafe, 2015, “Making Sense of Moral Perception”, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, vol. 18, pp. 745–758.
McKeever, Sean and Michael Ridge, 2006, Principled Ethics: Generalism as a Regulative Ideal, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
McNaughton, David, 1988, Moral Vision, Blackwell, Oxford.
Millgram, Elijah, 2005, “Murdoch, Practical Reasoning, and Particularism”, Ethics Done Right, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 168–197.
Mower, Deborah et al. (comps.), Developing Moral Sensitivity, Routledge, London.
Mower, Deborah and David McGraw, 2015, “The Normativity of Moral Sensitivity”,
in Deborah Mower et al. (eds.), Developing Moral Sensitivity, Routledge, London, pp. 264–279.
Murdoch, Iris, 1991, Sovereignty of Good, Routledge, New York.
Nussbaum, Martha, 2001, “Non-Scientific Deliberation”, The Fragility of Goodness, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 290–317.
Nussbaum, Martha, 1992, “Finely Aware and Richly Responsible: Literature and the Moral Imagination”, Love’s Knowledge, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 148–167.
Ridge, Michael and Sean McKeever, 2016, “Moral Particularism and Moral Generalism”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/moral-particularism-generalism/ [date of consultation: 04/11/2020]
Smuts, Aaron, 2010, “The Ethics of Humor: Can Your Sense of Humor Be Wrong?”, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, vol. 13, pp. 333–347.
Stratton-Lake, Philip, 2000, Kant, Duty and Moral Worth, Routledge, New York.
Tsu, Peter Shiu-Hwa, 2018, ‘Particularism in Ethics’, in Duncan Pritchard (ed.), Oxford Bibliographies Online, Oxford University Press, Oxford,
http://oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-97801953965
77/obo-9780195396577-0367.xml [date of consultation: 04/11/2020]
Tsu, Peter Shiu-Hwa, 2013, “Shapelessness and Predication Supervenience: A Limited Defense of Shapeless Moral Particularism”, Philosophical Studies, vol. 166, no. 1, pp. 51–67.
Väyrynen, Pekka, 2018a, “Reasons and Mora Principles”, in Daniel Star (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Reasons and Normativity, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 839–861.
Väyrynen, Pekka, 2018b, “Doubts about Moral Perception”, Evaluative Perception, in Anna Bergqvist and Robert Cowan (eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 109–128.
Väyrynen, Pekka, 2008, “Usable Moral Principles”, in Mark Lance et al. (eds.), Challenging Moral Particularism, Routledge, London.
Watkins, Michael and Kelly Jolley, 2002, “Pollyanna Realism: Moral Perception and Moral Properties”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 80, no. 1, pp. 75–85.
Werner, Preston, 2020, “Moral Perception”, Philosophy Compass.
(doi:10.1111/phc3.12640)
Werner, Preston, 2018, “Moral Perception without (Prior) Moral Knowledge”, The Journal of Moral Philosophy, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 164–181.
Wisnewski, J., 2015, “The Case for Moral Perception”, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, vol. 14, pp. 129–148.
Wodak, Daniel, 2019, “Moral Perception, Inference, and Intuition”, Philosophical Studies, vol. 176, no. 6, pp. 1495–1512.
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