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450Science and ethics: Toward a theory of ethical valueJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 25 (2). 1994.This article sketches descriptive and normative components of a theory of ethical value. The normative component, which receives the lion’s share of attention, is developed by adapting Laudan’s levels of scientific discourse. The resulting levels of ethical discourse can be critically addressed through the use of inductive inference, falsification, and causal inference. These techniques are likewise appropriate to the corresponding levels of scientific discourse.
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42Corporate agency and reductionPhilosophical Quarterly 39 (157): 409-424. 1989.Individual people are morally responsible. But can groups of people - corporations and nations, for example - be morally responsible as well? An affirmative answer has been defended by appealing to two criteria, here identified as the turnover test and the distribution test. The article argues for a Scotch verdict: neither criterion proves the point.
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81Moral Strata: Another Approach to Reflective EquilibriumSpringer. 2014.This volume recreates the received notion of reflective equilibrium. It reconfigures reflective equilibrium as both a cognitive ideal and a method for approximating this ideal. The ideal of reflective equilibrium is restructured using the concept of discursive strata, which are formed by sentences and differentiated by function. Sentences that perform the same kind of linguistic function constitute a stratum. The book shows how moral discourse can be analyzed into phenomenal, instrumental, and t…Read more
John R. Welch
Saint Louis University - Madrid Campus
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Saint Louis University - Madrid CampusRetired faculty
Areas of Interest
1 more
Decision Theory |
Epistemology |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Philosophy of Probability |