Morality in a Natural World
Selected Essays in Metaethics

Copp defends a version of naturalistic moral realism that can accommodate the normativity of morality.

David Copp (Author)

9780521863711, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 July 2007

376 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.8 cm, 0.65 kg

'Ultimately, Copp does a good job of accomplishing his modest goals, and provides a picture of naturalism that is well worth further consideration.' J Value Inquiry

The central philosophical challenge of metaethics is to account for the normativity of moral judgment without abandoning or seriously compromising moral realism. In Morality in a Natural World, David Copp defends a version of naturalistic moral realism that can accommodate the normativity of morality. Moral naturalism is often thought to face special metaphysical, epistemological, and semantic problems as well as the difficulty in accounting for normativity. In the ten essays included in this volume, Copp defends solutions to these problems. Three of the essays are new, while seven have previously been published. All of them are concerned with the viability of naturalistic and realistic accounts of the nature of morality, or, more generally, with the viability of naturalistic accounts of reasons.

Introduction
Part I. Naturalism: Epistemology and Metaphysics: 1. Why naturalism?
2. Four epistemological challenges to ethical naturalism: naturalized epistemology and the first-person perspective
3. Moral naturalism and self-evident moral truths
4. Moral necessities in a contingent world
Part II. Referring to Moral Properties: 5. Realist-expressivism: a neglected option for moral realism
6. Milk, honey, and the good life on moral twin earth
7. Referring to moral properties: moral twin-earth, again
Part III. Naturalism and Normativity: 8. Moral naturalism and three grades of normativity
9. The ring of gyges: overridingness and the unity of reason
10. The normativity of self-grounded reason.

Subject Areas: Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Philosophy [HP]