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    Aristotle's function argument is vulnerable to the is-oug... — Carmelics
    Home/Moral Responsibility
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    Aristotle's function argument is vulnerable to the is-ought criticism.

    Moral Responsibility
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Aristotle's ergon argument infers eudaimonia from the distinctive function of humans (rational activity), treating 'function' as inherently normative.
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    • 2.Hume's guillotine requires that no normative conclusion follow from purely descriptive premises, yet 'function' already smuggles in teleological normativity.
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    • 3.G.E. Moore's open-question argument shows that identifying goodness with any natural property, including rational functioning, commits the naturalistic fallacy.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Philippa Foot's neo-Aristotelian naturalism requires grounding normativity in biological facts about species flourishing, which itself presupposes contested metaphysical teleology.
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    • 2.If the function argument's validity depends on accepting Aristotelian teleology, it begs the question against naturalists who reject intrinsic biological norms.
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    • 3.R.M. Hare's prescriptivism demonstrates that evaluative language has action-guiding force that purely descriptive biological claims cannot logically generate.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.The function argument moves from a premise about what humans are (human nature) to a conclusion about what humans ought to be.
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    • 2.Modern moral theory holds that there is a fact-value distinction that prohibits deriving normative conclusions from purely descriptive premises.
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    Topics

    Moral ResponsibilityVirtue Ethics

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    Related

    Aristotle's ergon argument infers eudaimonia from the distinctive function of hu...G.E. Moore's open-question argument shows that identifying goodness with any nat...Hume's guillotine requires that no normative conclusion follow from purely descr...If the function argument's validity depends on accepting Aristotelian teleology,...
    +4 moreShow less
    Modern moral theory holds that there is a fact-value distinction that prohibits ...Philippa Foot's neo-Aristotelian naturalism requires grounding normativity in bi...R.M. Hare's prescriptivism demonstrates that evaluative language has action-guid...The function argument moves from a premise about what humans are (human nature) ...

    Similar

    Aquinas's ethics does not invalidly attempt to deduce 'ought' from 'is...77%Whiting's defense of semantic obligations via the possibility of criti...71%The function argument moves from a premise about what humans are (huma...71%Foot's argument against act-consequentialism fails.71%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: ethics-ancient
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    Like Plato, Aristotle is a eudaimonist in that he argues that virtue (including in some way the moral virtues of courage, justice and the rest) is the dominant and most important component of happiness. However, he is not claiming that the only reason to be morally virtuous is that moral virtue is a constituent of happiness. He says that we seek to have virtue and virtuous action for itself as well (Nicomachean Ethics, 1097b 1–10); not to do so is to fail even to be virtuous. In this regard, it
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit