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Evolutionary Debunking Arguments

Evolutionary debunking arguments (EDAs) are arguments that appeal to the evolutionary origins of evaluative beliefs to undermine their justification. This paper aims to clarify the premises and presuppositions of EDAs—a form of argument that is increasingly put to use in normative ethics. I argue th...

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Autor principal: Kahane, Guy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Blackwell Publishing Inc 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3175808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21949447
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0068.2010.00770.x
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author Kahane, Guy
author_facet Kahane, Guy
author_sort Kahane, Guy
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description Evolutionary debunking arguments (EDAs) are arguments that appeal to the evolutionary origins of evaluative beliefs to undermine their justification. This paper aims to clarify the premises and presuppositions of EDAs—a form of argument that is increasingly put to use in normative ethics. I argue that such arguments face serious obstacles. It is often overlooked, for example, that they presuppose the truth of metaethical objectivism. More importantly, even if objectivism is assumed, the use of EDAs in normative ethics is incompatible with a parallel and more sweeping global evolutionary debunking argument that has been discussed in recent metaethics. After examining several ways of responding to this global debunking argument, I end by arguing that even if we could resist it, this would still not rehabilitate the current targeted use of EDAs in normative ethics given that, if EDAs work at all, they will in any case lead to a truly radical revision of our evaluative outlook.
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spelling pubmed-31758082011-09-21 Evolutionary Debunking Arguments Kahane, Guy Nous Articles Evolutionary debunking arguments (EDAs) are arguments that appeal to the evolutionary origins of evaluative beliefs to undermine their justification. This paper aims to clarify the premises and presuppositions of EDAs—a form of argument that is increasingly put to use in normative ethics. I argue that such arguments face serious obstacles. It is often overlooked, for example, that they presuppose the truth of metaethical objectivism. More importantly, even if objectivism is assumed, the use of EDAs in normative ethics is incompatible with a parallel and more sweeping global evolutionary debunking argument that has been discussed in recent metaethics. After examining several ways of responding to this global debunking argument, I end by arguing that even if we could resist it, this would still not rehabilitate the current targeted use of EDAs in normative ethics given that, if EDAs work at all, they will in any case lead to a truly radical revision of our evaluative outlook. Blackwell Publishing Inc 2011-03 /pmc/articles/PMC3175808/ /pubmed/21949447 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0068.2010.00770.x Text en © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Re-use of this article is permitted in accordance with the Creative Commons Deed, Attribution 2.5, which does not permit commercial exploitation.
spellingShingle Articles
Kahane, Guy
Evolutionary Debunking Arguments
title Evolutionary Debunking Arguments
title_full Evolutionary Debunking Arguments
title_fullStr Evolutionary Debunking Arguments
title_full_unstemmed Evolutionary Debunking Arguments
title_short Evolutionary Debunking Arguments
title_sort evolutionary debunking arguments
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3175808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21949447
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0068.2010.00770.x
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