Moral Epistemology

• Main Author: Zimmerman, Aaron
• Format: eBook Book
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon, Oxon Routledge 2010; Taylor and Francis; Taylor & Francis Group
• Edition: 1
• Series: New Problems of Philosophy
• Subjects: Epistemology; Ethics; Ethics Philosophy; Knowledge, Theory of; fact; Young Man; Non-inferential Knowledge; Human Suffering; boys; Pro Tanto; modus; Paul Gauguin; ponens; chubby; Moral Knowledge; Moore's Open Question Argument; Port Authority Bus Terminal; Basic Moral Beliefs; Blue Litmus Paper Red; SBN; Argument's Premises; knowledge; Donner Party; skepticism; Modus Ponens Arguments; Modus Ponens; Moral Skepticism; Frege Geach Problems; beliefs; Justified Belief; Moral Epistemology; Saddam's Immorality; Chubby Boy; Indicative Conditionals; Saddam's Actions; Modus Ponens Inference; arguments; Moral Beliefs; basic
• ISBN: 0415485541; 9780415485531; 0415485533; 9780415485548
• DOI: 10.4324/9780203850862

How do we know right from wrong? Do we even have moral knowledge? Moral epistemology studies these and related questions about our understanding of virtue and vice. It is one of philosophy's perennial problems, reaching back to Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Hume and Kant, and has recently been the subject of intense debate as a result of findings in developmental and social psychology. In this outstanding introduction to the subject Aaron Zimmerman covers the following key topics: What is moral epistemology? What are its methods? Including a discussion of Socrates, Gettier and contemporary theories of knowledge skepticism about moral knowledge based on the anthropological record of deep and persistent moral disagreement, including contextualism moral nihilism, including debates concerning God and morality and the relation between moral knowledge and our motives and reasons to act morally epistemic moral scepticism, intuitionism and the possibility of inferring 'ought' from 'is,' discussing the views of Locke, Hume, Kant, Ross, Audi, Thomson, Harman, Sturgeon and many others how children acquire moral concepts and become more reliable judges criticisms of those who would reduce moral knowledge to value-neutral knowledge or attempt to replace moral belief with emotion. Throughout the book Zimmerman argues that our belief in moral knowledge can survive sceptical challenges. He also draws on a rich range of examples from Plato's Meno and Dickens' David Copperfield to Bernard Madoff and Saddam Hussein. Including chapter summaries and annotated further reading at the end of each chapter, Moral Epistemology is essential reading for all students of ethics, epistemology and moral psychology.