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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Ethics & moral philosophy
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Grounded Ethics - The Empirical Bases of Normative Judgements (Paperback)
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Grounded Ethics - The Empirical Bases of Normative Judgements (Paperback)
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Scientific naturalism--basing beliefs on empirical evidence--has
now triumphed in every field of inquiry except moral philosophy.
There it is still thought appropriate to cite otherworldly
standards known by divine revelation or moral intuition. In
Grounded Ethics Max Hocutt argues that, since there is no
transcendent reality on which to base the claims of ethics,
normative truth must be sought in the desires of individuals and
the conventions of societies. Hocutt begins with an empiricist
analysis of normative judgments. Following B.F. Skinner, he asserts
that we call good what reinforces our desires, and that we call
right or just what we desire to reinforce. Consequently, desire is
the immediate measure of both goodness and justice. Acknowledging
that goodness is relative to individual preferences, and justice is
relative to social norms, Hocutt denies that goodness is a matter
of personal opinion and that every society's institutions are as
good as every other's. Instead, he says, the conduct of individuals
and the customs of societies must ultimately be evaluated by how
well they serve biologically based needs. These must be discovered
empirically, because they cannot be known a priori. In support of
this analysis, Hocutt challenges rationalist belief, that normative
concepts cannot be defined in empirical terms because they are
rooted in divine law or ideals of pure reason. Against this view,
Hocutt argues that if the moral law exists only as an ideal, it is
not binding in the same sense as the empirically known laws and
moralities of actual societies. He also points out that rationalist
intuitions are best understood as expressions of animal instinct,
socially conditioned prejudice, and personal preference. In
addition, he offers extensive critiques of major philosophers, both
ancient and modern, who hold contrary views. All of this is meant
to show that there is no escaping the empirical: A sensible ethics
must be built on observable facts; it cannot be pulled from a vague
but pious rationalist sky. Hocutt's demonstration of this thesis
will interest philosophers, behavioral biologists, sociologists and
ethicists.
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