Ethical Naturalism and the Meaning of “Good”

How to explicate the meaning of “good” is a classic philosophical question, one reason is that “good” has metaphysical properties which are difficult to interpret. The development of ethical naturalism opens a door to answer the “good” question. This theory proposes to view the moral world and the natural world as a continuum, in that the moral world is built on the basis of the natural one. This study aims to introduce a sort of reductive ethical naturalism—end-relational theory—to interpret “good” assertions. According to this theory, most “good” assertions are end-relational and thus “good” can be reduced to “end”. By doing so, metaphysical moral meaning can be converted into concretized natural meaning, and then “good” morality will not be high up above anymore.

Aristóteles Contra o Bem dos Economistas

Despite its origins within moral philosophy, economists think their science has nothing to do with the good. They appeal to some kind of Hume’s guillotine that divides the descriptive and the normative. With that in hand, they affirm the solely descriptive aspect of their discipline. I argue this is not the case. Economists have, as they need to, an all encompassing notion of the good. I suggest going back to Aristotelian arguments to show the shortcomings of this good of economists. Aristotle is helpful because of his analysis of chrematistics and the real function of money. Hence, the loosely utilitarian good of the economists is confronted with a robust sense of the good and the human form. The capability approach is the first to identify these weak points on economic theory and to propose a sort of Aristotelian comeback. However, I claim the capabilities approach itself doesn’t follow the Aristotelian arguments used to attack economists to its necessary conclusion. Therefore, I suggest that the recent advances in neo-Aristotelian ethical naturalism can be used to reformulate economics by dispossessing economists of their sumo bonnun.

Ethical Emergentism and Moral Causation

This paper focuses on a recently articulated, emergentist conception of ethical naturalism and its commitment to causal efficacy, or the idea that moral properties have causal powers, along with its supporting commitment to moral causation. After I reconstruct the theory, I explain how it offers some interesting theoretical benefits to moral realists in virtue of its commitment to causal efficacy. Then, after locating some examples of moral causation in support of this commitment, I present and respond to five objections to such causation, which all threaten to undermine this support. Lastly, I consider a very serious problem that the theory faces in virtue of positing emergent moral properties as responsible for moral causation – namely, the problem of downward moral causation. I describe this problem in detail and argue that, as it stands, it does not spell doom for the theory.

Health and illness research: value-free or value-laden?

This chapter asks whether health research can and should be value-free. It questions whether facts can be separated from values, and then considers: health-related rights; dignity in healthcare; truth, trust and consent; values and ethics in health research. The chapter also looks at: what critical realism can add on important ethical concerns that are missing or under-examined in other paradigms; health research paradigms and ethics; ethical naturalism and moral realism; learning from other major theorists: advocacy on many levels and, finally, the chapter compares the approaches to values in realist evaluation and in critical realism. In the detailed example, Graham Scambler combines critical realism with Habermas’s theories.

Riflessioni sul concetto di natura in Lucio Anneo Seneca

The aim of this short paper is to highlight nature’s central role in the constitution and progress of human morality, by analysing nature’s multiple characters as displayed in various sections of Seneca’s work. First, the focus will extend to man’s fundamental propensity to good, which belongs to him by nature. Secondly, a virtuous and happy life will be presented as the life led according to nature. In conclusion, research on natural phenomena will be accounted for, as a building block towards moral perfection. The relationship between all the previous traits, mentioned in the cited passages, constitutes the heart of Seneca’s ethical naturalism.