Academic

Robinson on the Metaphysics of Moral Conflict

By Lawrence Solum

Luke Robinson has posted Metaphysics of Moral Conflict on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

One of the more fundamental questions raised by the generalism?particularism debate in ethics is just what a right-making factor (or reason) is. I contrast two possible conceptions of such factors and defend the second. The first understands right-making factors in terms of moral laws, and variants of it are advanced by writers on either side of the generalism?particularism debate. The second understands right-making factors in terms of right-making properties conceived dispositionally?i.e., as powers, capacities, etc. I defend the latter, dispositionalist conception on the basis of its ability to elucidate and explain various features that right-making factors are widely taken to have, including the ability to contribute to the overall moral status of an action without determining it. I also offer dispositionalist conceptions of other morally relevant factors, including defeaters, intensifiers, and disablers. And I deploy these conceptions to elucidate and defend moral holism (or the holism of the right-making relation).

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on April 04, 2008 (boomark / email).