Thinking Functionally About Moral Assertion
According to the E-Functional Account of moral assertion, the practice of making moral assertions persists because moral assertions help their addressees gain moral understanding. Proponents of this view have taken it to support the existence of an evaluative norm of moral assertion, as well as a pr...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Ethical theory and moral practice
Year: 2025, Volume: 28, Issue: 4, Pages: 517-531 |
| Further subjects: | B
Testimony
B Function B Blame B Moral assertion |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | According to the E-Functional Account of moral assertion, the practice of making moral assertions persists because moral assertions help their addressees gain moral understanding. Proponents of this view have taken it to support the existence of an evaluative norm of moral assertion, as well as a prescriptive norm of moral assertion. According to the latter, moral assertions must be accompanied by an explanation. For instance, if I am to tell you that eating meat is wrong, I should also tell you why it is wrong. After situating the E-Functional Account in the context of recent work on moral testimony, this article defends an extant objection to the prescriptive norm that the account is taken to support. A further, deeper objection to the E-Functional Account is then raised. This deeper objection targets the claim the practice of moral assertion persists because it enables addressees to gain moral understanding. This deeper objection is mounted by taking a closer look at a particular sub-class of moral assertions that are dubbed Emotionally Forceful Moral Assertions. |
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| ISSN: | 1572-8447 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Ethical theory and moral practice
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s10677-025-10487-y |
