Trusting our own minds

Kalde, Dennis (2019): Trusting our own minds: metaethical constructivism and moral objectivity. Dissertation, LMU München: Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and the Study of Religion

Abstract

When it comes to the metaethical task of explaining and making sense of what it is that we are doing while doing ethics, the subject of moral objectivity occupies an important and special place within that task. Thus, it is often agreed that being able to explain and justify the objective features of common moral practice is one of if not the most important task for any metaethical theory to undertake. In this dissertation, I tackle the issue of ethical objectivity on behalf of metaethical constructivism. To be more precise, my aim is to make plausible, strengthen, and defend the constructivist original contribution to contemporary metaethics by developing a novel constructivist account on the objectivity of ethics. While the account that I develop herein presents a novel and independent approach to the subject of moral objectivity on behalf of constructivism, it also places itself between the two other positions within the constructivist camp that openly strive to secure ethical objectivity – namely Kantianism on the one hand, and the more recently developed Humean objectivist view on the other. It is for the latter reason that I call my own view the hybrid view.

• Item Type: Theses (Dissertation, LMU Munich)
• Keywords: Metaethik, Metaethics, Moralische Objektivität, Moral Objectivity, Metaethischer Konstruktivismus, Metaethical Constructivism, Konstruktivismus, Constructivism, Kantian Constructivism, Humean Constructivism
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology; 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 170 Ethics
• Faculties: Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and the Study of Religion
• Language: English
• Date of oral examination: 21. June 2019
• 1. Referee: Betzler, Monika
• Signature of the printed copy: 0001/UMC 27755