Descriptive Ethics: What does Moral Philosophy Know about Morality?

142 Pages·2016·4.39 MB·English

by  Nora Hämäläinen (auth.)

Descriptive Ethics
NoraHämäläinen
Descriptive Ethics
What does Moral Philosophy
Know about Morality?
NoraHämäläinen
UniversityofHelsinki
Helsinki,Finland
SwedishCollegiumforAdvancedStudies
Uppsala,Sweden
ISBN978-1-137-58616-2 ISBN978-1-137-58617-9(eBook)
DOI10.1057/978-1-137-58617-9
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016948822
©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2016
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsof
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology
nowknownorhereafterdeveloped.
Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthis
publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesare
exemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformation
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publishernortheauthorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespectto
thematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.
Coverillustration:PatternadaptedfromanIndiancottonprintproducedinthe19thcentury
Printedonacid-freepaper
ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature
TheregisteredcompanyisNatureAmericaInc.
Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:1NewYorkPlaza,NewYork,NY10004,U.S.A.
Wephilosophersneedtoworkwithanthropologists,sociologists,sociobiologists,
psychologists, to findout whatactualmorality is; we needto read historyto
findhowithaschangeditself,toreadnovelstoseehowitmightchangeagain.
AnnetteBaier,Postures oftheMind:EssaysonMindandMorals.London:
Methuen,1985,p. 224.
Anyonewhonowwishestomakeastudyofmoralmattersopensupforhimself
and immense fieldof work.All kindsofindividual passionshave to be
thoughtthroughandpursuedthroughdifferentages,peoples,andgreatand
smallindividuals;alltheirreasonandalltheirevaluationsandperspectives
onthings have to bebrought intothe light.
FriedrichNietzsche, TheGay Science,translated,withcommentary by
Walter Kaufmann. NewYork: Vintage Books, 1974,pp. 81–82.
For Niklas
P
REFACE
Academicwritingis,withgoodreason,governedbyanidealofimperson-
ality.We reporttheendproduct, the scholarshipandpolishedreasoning.
The authors’ struggles are not interesting, and anecdotal framing of a
study belongs to the retrospective prefaces written by eminent emeriti to
asecondorthirdedition.Butsometimesitmaybegood,forthepurpose
ofeasierentranceintothelineorreasoning,toletone’sreaderssharebits
of thebackground of a text.
This book was originally part of a larger and rather different work: a
philosophical study of the contemporary self-help culture. Looking at
contemporary literature of self-improvement as one of the most central
places where contemporary people reflect over good personhood,
duties, and the good life, I was convinced that what I do was not
merely cultural philosophy of some kind, but moral philosophy. It
seemedto methatakindof freelyapplied culturalphilosophyapproach
was necessary for bringing out some aspects of our moral lives that
made moral philosophy an interesting pursuit in the first place. I did
not so much want to look behind our contingent forms of morality as I
wanted to look at them, in their complex, banal, quotidian manifesta-
tions. At the same time I had the vague idea that looking at them, as
contingent historical phenomena, would help me to deal with the
relationship between the historicity of morals and the moral claim to
universality. So, in addition to writing bits and pieces about popular
self-help and its more highbrow manifestations, I found myself doing
meta-philosophy by arguing for two interrelated views. First, I was
suggesting a cultural philosophy approach to ethics and second, I was
ix
x PREFACE
arguing that such an approach would dissolve the problems surround-
ing historicity and universality in ethics.
At acertainpointIfoundthatthesemeta-philosophicalandmethodo-
logicalconcernsweretakinguptoomuchspaceinmywritingaboutself-
help, while being mostly uninteresting to those potential readers, in
different fields, who have a primary interest in self-help per se. It also
seemed tome thatself-help becamea meansto workingthrough metho-
dologicalissuesinphilosophy,whereitdeservedfullattentiononitsown.
ThusIeventuallyseparatedtheexplicitmethodologicalmaterialfromthe
larger project and let it grow into the shape of this long essay. I am still
herearguingforaculturalphilosophyapproachtoethics.Iamconcerned
witharticulatingwhatsuchanapproachcouldbe,howitdiffersfromthe
concerns of mainstream Anglophone ethics, and most centrally how it
linkstosomecentralworksintwentieth-centuryphilosophy.Thehistori-
city of morals and its relation to claims to universality are of course too
large topics for this book, but I will provide some preliminary pointers
toward how the relationship between historicity and our deepest moral
commitments could be addressed under the auspices of a descriptive
ethics.
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book was written as part of my work as a fellow of the Helsinki
Collegium for Advanced Studies in 2013–2016. Special thanks go to
Niklas Forsberg, Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen, Sari Kivistö, Sami Pihlström,
Merja Polvinen, Eva Johanna Holmberg, and the wonderful interdisci-
plinary research communityatthe HCAS.
xi
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction—or WhatDoesMoralPhilosophy
KnowaboutMorality? 1
2 MoralPhilosophyToday 7
3 MoralityasKnownby MoralPhilosophers 15
4 TheFoundational Project of Ethicsanda DifferentWay
ofGoing Below theSurface 27
5 TheChallenge fromX-phi 37
6 Dewey’sEmpiricalEthics 49
7 WittgensteinianApplications 59
8 Foucault’s ArcheologyandGenealogyof the Self 73
9 CharlesTaylor’sAffirmation of the ModernSelf 91
xiii