Table Of ContentDEBUNKING ARGUMENTS IN ETHICS
Inthiscrisplywrittenbook,HannoSaueroffersthefirstbook-length
treatmentofdebunkingargumentsinethics,developinganempiric-
ally informed and philosophically sophisticated account of genea-
logical arguments and their significance for the reliability of moral
cognition. He breaks new ground by introducing a series of novel
distinctions into the current debate, which allows him to develop a
framework for assessing the prospects of debunking or vindicating
our moral intuitions. He also challenges the justification of some of
ourmoraljudgmentsbyshowingthattheyarebasedonepistemically
defective processes. His book is an original, cutting-edge contribu-
tion to the burgeoning field of empirically informed metaethics and
will interest philosophers, psychologists, and anyone interested in
how– and whether –moral judgmentworks.
is Assistant Professor of Ethics at the Department
of Philosophy at Utrecht University and a member of the Ethics
Institute. He is the author of Who's Afraid of Instrumental Reason?
Instrumentelle Vernunft und die Diagnose sozialer Pathologien ()
and Moral Judgments as Educated Intuitions (). Sauer has pub-
lishedarticlesinanumberofjournalsincludingPhilosophicalStudies,
TheJournalofEthics,PhilosophicalPsychology,andEthicalTheoryand
Moral Practice.
DEBUNKING ARGUMENTS
IN ETHICS
HANNO SAUER
UniversityofUtrecht
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Contents
List of Figures page viii
List of Tables ix
Acknowledgments x
Introduction: Debunking Arguments and the Gap
I. CornflakesandCriticalTheory
I. ACold,HardLook
I. TheGap
I. NormativeTheory
I. MoralAgency
I. MoralandNonmoralJudgment
I. MoralIntuition
I. OutlineoftheBook
Debunking Explained: Structure and Typology
Introduction
. TheStructureofDebunking
. SelectiveorGlobal?
. OffTrack
. Obsoleteness
. Symmetry
. DetectionError
. Inconsistency
. IgnobleOrigins
Conclusion
Debunking Defused: The Metaethical Turn
Introduction
. TheDarwinianDilemma
. TheWeakestLink
. MetaethicalorSubstantiveDebunking?
v
vi Contents
. AgainsttheMetaethicalTurn
. ADiagnosis:PriorPlausibility
Conclusion
Debunking Contained: Selective and Global Scope
Introduction
. Scope:WideandNarrowDebunking
. ProcessorBestExplanation?
. Distance:DistalandProximalDebunking
. BadDebunking!
. Depth:ShallowandDeepDebunking
. Trade-OffsandElectiveAffinities
. GlobalDebunking:GarbageIn,GarbageOut
. SelectiveDebunking:Disgust,Deontology,Partiality
. TheInstabilityofSelectiveDebunking:Collapse
. TheInstabilityofSelectiveDebunking:Regress
. TheInstabilityofGlobalDebunking:Overgeneralization
Conclusion
Debunking Realism: Moral Disagreement
Introduction
. TheEmpiricalCaseagainstRealism
. TheRightKindofDisagreement
. MoralConvergenceandtheRightKindofDisagreement
. MoralConvergenceandDebunking
Conclusion
Debunking Conservatism: Political Disagreement
Introduction
. MoralFoundations
. TheAsymmetryofUnderstanding
. AgainstSocialIntuitionism
. AgainstMoralFoundations
. DebunkingConservatism
. MoralFoundationsforLiberals
Conclusion
Debunking Details: The Perils of Trolleyology
Introduction
. Trolleyology
. Unfamiliarity
Contents vii
. TheDifferenceArgument
. EcologicalValidity
. Novelty
. ImaginativeResistance
. Specificity
. Certainty
. RevisitingtheDifferenceArgument
. WhitherTrolleyology?
Conclusion
Debunking Doctrines: Double or Knobe Effect?
Introduction
. ThreeQuestions:Methodological,Substantive,Normative
. FromUnificationtoScope
. TheObstacleModel
. RelevantAlternatives?
. NormativeImplications:DeontologyDebunked?
Conclusion
Vindicating Arguments
Introduction
. AffirmativeVindicationandVindicationbyElimination
. VindicatingArguments:Structure
. VindicatingArguments:Features
. BridgingtheGap
References
Index
Figures
. Evolutionary debunking: Deep off-track debunking of
M{all moral judgments} page
. Framing effects: Shallow symmetry debunking of
M{moral judgments which are susceptible to framing effects}
. Disgust: Medium-deep hypersensitivity debunking
of M{moral judgments resulting from disgust responses}
viii
Tables
. Permutations of Debunking page
. Defusing Explanations
. Content of the Right Kind of Disagreement
. The Right Kind of Disagreement: Sources and Content
ix
Description:In this crisply written book, Hanno Sauer offers the first book-length treatment of debunking arguments in ethics, developing an empirically informed and philosophically sophisticated account of genealogical arguments and their significance for the reliability of moral cognition. He breaks new groun
