Notes on Robert Audi’s Moral Knowledge and Ethical Character, pt II: Ethical Concepts and Moral Realism

Section II: Ethical Concepts and Moral Realism “Moral Epistemology and the Supervenience of Ethical Concepts” This essay focuses on the epistemological status of moral principles by attending to whether empiricism or rationalism is better suited for moral knowledge in light of the supervenience of moral properties on non-moral properties; Audi, unsurprisingly, concludes in favor of […]

Notes on Audi’s Moral Knowledge & Ethical Character, pt I: Moral Epistemology

I’ve frequently criticized virtue ethics on this blog, so it seems worthwhile to comment on Robert Audi’s theories on moral realism, which seek to integrate an Aristotelian virtue conception into an otherwise intuitionistic Kantianism (or Kantian intuitionism; Audi admits either description of his view works, but as his epistemology is intuitionistic for the most part, […]

Kant’s Critique of Descartes (and time, immediacy, and the external world)

Yesterday I wrote on my favorite philosopher from the Modern tradition, Immanuel Kant, and troubles for his theory – today I want to briefly touch on his critique of the man who began said tradition, Rene Descartes, in order to put Kant’s theory in context. Kant sets his sights on Descartes’ rationalistic theory, but which […]

New Years Eve 2014 (and the metaphysics and metaphilosophy of the “now”)

With the beginning of a new calendar year often comes the inescapable feeling of the inevitability of passing time, though, perhaps not as arduously so as on one’s birthday. But is this feeling the result of an illusion? Is time “real” in the most profoundly metaphysical sense of the word? Even if there is such […]