I am interested in the combination of descriptive and normative elements in moral reasoning. To put it differently, I am interested in theories which try to integrate empirical data on moral experience/attitudes/judgments with ethical reasoning. Could you recommend some good rudimentary literature on it (except reflective equilibrium)?
Dear Krzysztof,
have you tried to look at natural law theories. They claim to disregard this (Kantian) distinction.
Best,
Ferenc
Dear Krzysztof,
I have two suggestions: (1) Jacques Derrida method of desconstruction and (2) Edgar Morin's method of complexity. See my (inn portuguese) "A interpretação complexa da lei de hume e da falácia naturalista" http://www.iecomplex.com.br/textos/Roland2.htm.
Best Regards,
Roland
Dear Krzysztof
You can try Paul Ricoeur too.
Regards
Maria João
Hello, Krzysztof,
I recommend a book by Russell Hardin, "David Hume: Moral and Political Theorist." It's Oxford Press, 2009.
In my opinion the locus classicus is the work of Lawrence Kohlberg: The Claim to Moral Adequacy of a Highest Stage of Moral Judgment, published in 1973 in The Journal of Philosophy, DOI: 10.2307/2025030
I think the basic problem you raised is how to do ethical reasoning using some empirical data. You must know that this is the area of applied philosophy/applied ethics/bioethics. I think Socratic Method as a philosophical tool may help you to do the ethical reasoning. Besides, you can always learn from how other philosophers do the ethical reasoning using empirical data. Please access some articles from the journals like (a) Journal of Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (http://www.springer.com/social+sciences/applied+ethics/journal/11019) or (b) Journal of Ethical Theories and Moral Practice (http://link.springer.com/journal/10677). May this help you.
Something interesting as an approach is what Neil Levy in his book on neuroethics called 'neuroscience of ethics'. These are attempts at deriving ethical conclusions from cognitive- and neuro- science. One example of an author that tries to go from descriptive to normative that way is Michael Gazzaniga in 'The ethical brain' http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&UID=2005-08974-000 That book might be open to many philosophical critiques, but shows how this approach is supposed to work.
Where ethics and economics meet...The Fable of the Bees, by Bernard Mandeville, and John Maynard Keynes' meditation on it in the form of the Paradox of Thrift.
And more recent updates to this...
Book Ethics, Efficiency and the Market
Article Keynes: Useful Economics for the World Economy
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