Book contents
- Moral Philosophy
- Talking Philosophy
- Moral Philosophy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- Rationality and Goodness
- Acting well
- Apprehending Human Form
- Does Modern Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?
- Absolutes and Particulars
- On the So-called Logic of Practical Inference
- Absolute Prohibitions without Divine Promises
- Moral Obligation
- The Lesser Evil
- The Ethics of Co-operation in Wrongdoing
- Authority
- The Force of Numbers
- Reason, Intention, and Choice
- Modern Moral Philosophy and the Problem of Relevant Descriptions
- Index
Authority
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 May 2022
- Moral Philosophy
- Talking Philosophy
- Moral Philosophy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- Rationality and Goodness
- Acting well
- Apprehending Human Form
- Does Modern Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?
- Absolutes and Particulars
- On the So-called Logic of Practical Inference
- Absolute Prohibitions without Divine Promises
- Moral Obligation
- The Lesser Evil
- The Ethics of Co-operation in Wrongdoing
- Authority
- The Force of Numbers
- Reason, Intention, and Choice
- Modern Moral Philosophy and the Problem of Relevant Descriptions
- Index
Summary
As children, we are often told both what to do and what to think. For a child to learn at all, it must in the first instance simply trust those, such as parents, who teach it things; and this goes for practical as well as theoretical learning. Doubting is necessarily something that comes later, for to be able to doubt one must have some beliefs already, e.g. concerning what sort of reasons count as good reasons, and what count as bad. But in growing up, a person does, or should, develop the capacity for rational doubt, and also the capacity for rational resistance to being told what to do. The first capacity constitutes a critical faculty, and the second is an essential constituent of practical autonomy.
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- Information
- Moral Philosophy , pp. 354 - 377Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022