Natural Goodness, Sex, and the Perverted Faculty Argument

Philosophy ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Christopher Arroyo
Keyword(s):  
Adequate Account ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Natural Goodness ◽  
Philippa Foot ◽  
Peter Geach

Abstract There is a longstanding and widely held view, often associated with Catholicism, that intrinsically nonprocreative human sex acts are intrinsically immoral. Some philosophers who hold this view, such as Edward Feser, claim that they can defend the view on purely philosophical grounds by relying on the perverted faculty argument. This paper argues that Feser's defense of the perverted faculty argument does not work because Feser fails to recognize the full implications of the species-dependence of natural goodness. By drawing on the work of Peter Geach and Philippa Foot, this paper presents a view of natural goodness that adequately accounts for the species-dependence of such goodness. Using this adequate account, the paper argues that at least some intrinsically nonprocreative human sex acts contribute to human flourishing.

Philippa Foot's Virtue Ethics Has an Achilles' Heel

Dialogue ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Woodcock
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
General Problem ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Moral Evaluation ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Natural Goodness ◽  
Human Goodness ◽  
Philippa Foot ◽  
Normative Implications

ABSTRACTMy aim in this article is to argue that Philippa Foot fails to provide a convincing basis for moral evaluation in her book Natural Goodness. Foot's proposal fails because her conception of natural goodness and defect in human beings either sanctions prescriptive claims that are clearly objectionable or else it inadvertently begs the question of what constitutes a good human life by tacitly appealing to an independent ethical standpoint to sanitize the theory's normative implications. Foot's appeal to natural facts about human goodness is in this way singled out as an Achilles' heel that undermines her attempt to establish an independent framework for virtue ethics. This problem might seem to be one that is uniquely applicable to the bold naturalism of Foot's methodology; however, I claim that the problem is indicative of a more general problem for all contemporary articulations of virtue ethics.

Neo-Aristotelian Virtue Ethics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy E. Snow
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
Ethical Naturalism ◽  
Natural Goodness ◽  
External Goods ◽  
Philippa Foot ◽  
Virtuous Life

Neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics takes inspiration from Aristotle’s ethical theory. Central to this approach is that virtues, enduring dispositions of character and intellect, are essential, along with external goods, for us to live flourishing lives in accordance with our nature as rational beings. Aristotle’s theory is teleological, for the virtues direct us toward the end or telos of flourishing and enable us to attain it. The theory is naturalistic in the sense that to live a virtuous life is to live a life of natural goodness. This chapter explains these and other ideas by reviewing Rosalind Hursthouse’s view that virtue ethics is a viable alternative to deontology and consequentialism, followed by a discussion of two major themes of Daniel C. Russell’s account of the role of practical reason in virtue ethics. Finally, it turns to ethical naturalism as articulated by Hursthouse, Philippa Foot, and Michael Thompson, with mention of McDowell’s approach.

Communication Ethics and Virtue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janie M. Harden Fritz
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Media Ethics ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Moral Exemplars ◽  
Communication Ethics ◽  
Philippa Foot ◽  
Major Branch ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

Virtue approaches to communication ethics have experienced a resurgence over the last decades. Tied to rhetoric since the time of Aristotle, virtue ethics offers scholars in the broad field of communication an approach to ethics based on character and human flourishing as an alternative to deontology. In each major branch of communication scholarship, the turn to virtue ethics has followed a distinctive trajectory in response to concerns about the adequacy of theoretical foundations for academic and applied work in communication ethics. Recent approaches to journalism and media ethics integrate moral psychology and virtue ethics to focus on moral exemplars, drawing on the work of Philippa Foot and Rosalind Hursthouse, or explore journalism as a MacIntyrean tradition of practice. Recent work in human communication ethics draws on MacIntyre’s approach to narrative, situating communication ethics within virtue structures that protect and promote particular goods in a moment of narrative and virtue contention.

Review of Natural Goodness, by Philippa Foot

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 548-555
Author(s):  
Brook J. Sadler ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Goodness ◽  
Philippa Foot

Have Elephant Seals Refuted Aristotle? 
Nature, Function, and Moral Goodness

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micah Lott
Keyword(s):  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Moral Goodness ◽  
Evolutionary Account ◽  
Natural Goodness ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Oak Trees ◽  
Evolutionary View ◽  
Philippa Foot

An influential strand of neo-Aristotelianism, represented by writers such as Philippa Foot, holds that moral virtue is a form of natural goodness in human beings, analogous to deep roots in oak trees or keen vision in hawks. Critics, however, have argued that such a view cannot get off the ground, because the neo-Aristotelian account of natural normativity is untenable in light of a Darwinian account of living things. This criticism has been developed most fully by William Fitzpatrick in his book Teleology and the Norms of Nature. In this paper, I defend the neo-Aristotelian account of natural normativity, focusing on Fitzpatrick’s arguments. I argue that a natural goodness view is not impugned by an evolutionary account. Nor can neo-Aristotelian life form judgments be replaced by an evolutionary view of living things.

CRITICAL NOTICE

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-147
Author(s):  
ERIC MACK
Keyword(s):  
Natural Goodness ◽  
Philippa Foot ◽  
Critical Notice

Natural Goodness, PHILIPPA FOOT. Clarendon Press, 2002, 125 pages.Philippa Foot begins her short but intriguingly rewarding book on Natural Goodness by recounting a story about Wittgenstein.Wittgenstein interrupted a speaker who had realized that he was about to say something that, although it seemed compelling, was clearly ridiculous, and was trying (as we all do in such circumstances) to say something sensible instead. “No,” said Wittgenstein. “Say what you want to say. Be crude and then we shall get on.” (p. 1)So it is no surprise that Natural Goodness itself is full of bold sayings which, although elegantly cast, will shock many readers' philosophical sensibilities. In this discussion of Foot's book I will complete compliance with Wittgenstein's advice by way of a crude attempt to interpret Foot's bold sayings.

From universalism to individualism: New approaches to economic growth analysis

2019 ◽  
pp. 108-126
Author(s):  
Ivan L. Lyubimov
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Structural Transformation ◽  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Growth Analysis ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Adequate Account ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Catching Up

This paper examines the evolution of academic and applied approaches to analyze the problem of economic growth since the mid-XX century. For quite an extended period of time, these views were corresponding to universalist economic policies taking no adequate account of particularities and limitations that a certain catching-up economy embodied. New approaches analyzing the problems of economic growth, on the contrary, individualize growth diagnostics, structural transformation and the organization of reforms processes for the emerging economies. We argue that individualist approaches might be potentially more effective than the universalist ones for solving the problem of slow economic growth.

Persons Together

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan L. Mittleman
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Market Relations ◽  
The Image Of God

This chapter moves into the political and economic aspects of human nature. Given scarcity and interdependence, what sense has Judaism made of the material well-being necessary for human flourishing? What are Jewish attitudes toward prosperity, market relations, labor, and leisure? What has Judaism had to say about the political dimensions of human nature? If all humans are made in the image of God, what does that original equality imply for political order, authority, and justice? In what kinds of systems can human beings best flourish? It argues that Jewish tradition shows that we act in conformity with our nature when we elevate, improve, and sanctify it. As co-creators of the world with God, we are not just the sport of our biochemistry. We are persons who can select and choose among the traits that comprise our very own natures, cultivating some and weeding out others.

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