The Archangel Delusion. Descriptive Ethics and Its Role in the Education of Ethicists

Jarosław Kucharski

doi:10.21697/spch.2021.57.A.08

Opublikowane: 2021-12-31

Tom 57 Nr 2 (2021)

The Archangel Delusion. Descriptive Ethics and Its Role in the Education of Ethicists

Jarosław Kucharski

Studia Philosophiae Christianae

Dział: Artykuły naukowe

https://doi.org/10.21697/spch.2021.57.A.08

Abstrakt

The role of ethicists is to provide a genuine ethical theory to help non-ethicists interpret and solve moral dilemmas, to define what is right or wrong, and, finally, to clarify moral values. Therefore, ethicists are taught to address morality with rational procedures, to set aside their moral intuitions and emotions. Sometimes, professional ethicists are prone to falling into the archangel delusion – the belief that they are beyond the influence of their own emotions. This can lead to ousting moral intuitions from the space of ethical reflection, thus making ethicists unaware of them. They may treat intuitive beliefs about morality as an expression of primal moral feelings. The main question pursued in this article, is how those feelings may influence moral theories, which should be developed by professional ethicists. Ethicists may provide an ethical theory which is merely a rationalisation and justification for their own suppressed moral emotions, rather than the effect of genuine, rational moral reasoning. To help ethicists cope with this delusion, a model of cooperation between descriptive and normative ethics is proposed. Ethicists should therefore use the research tools of descriptive ethics to determine their own intuitions, and the moral emotions in which these intuitions are grounded.

---------------

Received: 09/06/2021. Reviewed: 23/07/2021. Accepted: 13/08/2021.

Słowa kluczowe:

descriptive ethics, normative ethics, archangel delusion, R.M. Hare

Pobierz pliki

PDF (English)

Zasady cytowania

Kucharski, J. (2021). The Archangel Delusion. Descriptive Ethics and Its Role in the Education of Ethicists. Studia Philosophiae Christianae, 57(2), 35–49. https://doi.org/10.21697/spch.2021.57.A.08

Cited by / Share

Bibliografia

Abram, A. (2007). The philosophy of moral development. Forum Philosophicum, 12, 71-86. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/forphil200712123
Google Scholar

Aristotle. (2011). Nicomachean Ethics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226026763.001.0001
Google Scholar

Bentham, J. (2000). An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Kitchener: Batoche Books.
Google Scholar

Bruder, M., Tanyi, A. (2014). How to Gauge Moral Intuitions? Prospects for a New Methodology. In: C. Luetge, H. Rusch, M. Uhl (eds.), Experimental Ethics. Toward an Empirical Moral Philosophy, 157-174. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137409805_11
Google Scholar

Brunn, G. (2014). Reflective Equilibrium Without Intuitions?. Ethical Theory Moral Practice, 17, 237-252. (DOI 10.1007/s10677-013-9432-5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-013-9432-5
Google Scholar

Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: a social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814-834. (DOI 10.1037//0033-295X.108.4.814). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.108.4.814
Google Scholar

Haidt, J. (2012). The Righteous Mind. Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. New York: Pantheon Books.
Google Scholar

Hamalainen, N. (2016). Descriptive Ethics. What does Moral Philosophy Know about Morality?. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58617-9_1
Google Scholar

Hare, R.M. (1992). Moral Thinking. Its Levels, Method, and Point. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Google Scholar

Hoffmaster, B. (2018). From applied ethics to empirical ethics to contextual ethics. Bioethics, 32(2), 119-125. (DOI 10.1111/bioe.12419). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12419
Google Scholar

Knobe, J. (2007). Experimental philosophy. Philosophy Compass, 2(1), 81-92. (DOI 10.1111/j.1747-9991.2006.00050.x). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-9991.2006.00050.x
Google Scholar

Korsgaard, C.M. (2000). The right to lie: Kant on dealing with evil. In: C.M. Korsgaard, Creating the Kingdom of Ends, 133-158. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar

Luetge, C. (2014). Chances, Problems and Limits of Experimental Ethics. In: C. Luetge, H. Rusch, M. Uhl (eds.), Experimental Ethics. Toward an Empirical Moral Philosophy, 26-37. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137409805_3
Google Scholar

Molewijk, B., Stiggelbout, A.M., Otten, W., Dupuis, H.M., and Kievit, J. (2004). Empirical data and moral theory. A plea for integrated empirical ethics. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 7, 55-69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:MHEP.0000021848.75590.b0
Google Scholar

Parker, M. (2009). Two concepts of empirical ethics. Bioethics, 23(4), 202-213. (DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2009.01708.x). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2009.01708.x
Google Scholar

Rawls, J. (1999). A Theory of Justice Revised edition. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674042582
Google Scholar

Ross, D. (2007). The Right and the Good. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Google Scholar

Schwitzgebel, E., Rust, J. (2013). The moral behavior of ethics professors: Relationships among self-reported behavior, expressed normative attitude, and directly observed behavior. Philosophical Psychology, 27(3), 293-327. (DOI 10.1080/09515089.2012.727135). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2012.727135
Google Scholar

Sidgwick, H. (1907). The Methods of Ethics. London: MacMillan.
Google Scholar

Sinnott-Armstrong, W., Young, L., and Cushman, F. (2010). Moral intuitions. In: J.M. Doris (ed.), The Moral Psychology Handbook, 246-272. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199582143.003.0008
Google Scholar

Van der Scheer, L., Widdershovem, G. (2004). Integrated empirical ethics: Loss of normativity?. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 7, 71-79. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:MHEP.0000021849.57115.eb
Google Scholar