Acceptance, Belief, and Descartes’s Provisional Morality

This paper explores Descartes’s work with an eye towards abiding issues in moral epistemology. In so doing, I focus on the role played by the so-called provisional morality that surfaces in “Discourse on the Method”. What I argue is that despite the tenuousness with which it seems to be held, Descar...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kadlac, Adam (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2007
In: Ethical theory and moral practice
Year: 2007, Volume: 10, Issue: 1, Pages: 35-52
Further subjects:B Belief
B Acceptance
B Descartes
B moral epistemology
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Summary:This paper explores Descartes’s work with an eye towards abiding issues in moral epistemology. In so doing, I focus on the role played by the so-called provisional morality that surfaces in “Discourse on the Method”. What I argue is that despite the tenuousness with which it seems to be held, Descartes remained committed to the truth of this morality even in the midst of his most strenuous philosophical reflections. Put in the contemporary epistemological terms which provide the context of my discussion, I argue that Descartes believed in the goodness of his provisional morality as opposed to merely accepting its maxims.
ISSN:1572-8447
Contains:Enthalten in: Ethical theory and moral practice
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10677-006-9039-1