What the golden rule teaches us about ethics.
The Golden Rule is regularly used in ordinary life, across many different cultures, to acquire new moral knowledge. At the same time, the Golden Rule is widely ignored both in ethics and metaethics because it seems to be an implausible normative theory. Most philosophers who have paid it any attenti...
| Published in: | Philosophy & Phenomenological Research Vol. 110; no. 1; pp. 201 - 226 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Jan2025
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=183923372&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 183923372 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00318205 PPO jtl: Philosophy & Phenomenological Research issn: 00318205 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Jan2025 vid: 110 iid: 1 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 183923372 10.1111/phpr.13104 ppf: 201 ppct: 25 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 452KB tig: atl: What the golden rule teaches us about ethics. aug: au: Ward, Shane William affil: Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany su: Ethics Ethical intuitionism Sentimentalism Philosophy Metaphysics sug: subj: Ethics Ethical intuitionism Sentimentalism Philosophy Metaphysics keyword: Golden Rule Intuitionism Moral Epistemology ab: The Golden Rule is regularly used in ordinary life, across many different cultures, to acquire new moral knowledge. At the same time, the Golden Rule is widely ignored both in ethics and metaethics because it seems to be an implausible normative theory. Most philosophers who have paid it any attention have thought that, at best, it is an initially tempting thought whose appeal should be explained by the ultimately correct normative theory. My aim in this paper is to attend to an alternative possibility: the Golden Rule teaches us something about metaethics, in the form of moral epistemology, rather than normative ethics. I will argue that sentimentalism, the view that the emotions are an essential source of moral knowledge, provides a compelling explanation of the usefulness of the Golden Rule. Before giving the sentimentalist explanation, I explain why proposed alternative sources of moral knowledge provide less compelling explanations of its usefulness. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Philosophy & Phenomenological Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Philosophy & Phenomenological Research holder: Wiley-Blackwell dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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