Cover Image

The fruitfulness of normative concepts /

"Can philosophical concepts do real work in improving our world? Should we, when evaluating competing understandings of concepts like 'justice,' 'empowerment,' and 'solidarity,' take into account whether these different understandings can actually help us to fight...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lindauer, Matthew (Author)
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2025]
Subjects:
Normativity (Ethics)
Political science > Philosophy.
Political science > Methodology.
Norme (Morale)
Ethics & Moral Philosophy.
PHILOSOPHY.
Political.
Social.
Political science > Philosophy
Political science > Methodology
Ethics & moral philosophy.
Philosophy.
Electronic books.
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
Table of Contents:
  • Cover
  • Half Title
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • I.1. Motivation for the Project
  • I.2. The View on Offer
  • I.2.1 Normative Concepts as Keys, Practical Problems as Locks
  • I.2.2 A Prominent Alternative
  • I.2.3 The Relevance of Science to Ethics
  • I.2.4 Lock and Key Briefly Revisited
  • I.3. Two Clarifications Regarding the Scope of the Project
  • I.4. Chapter Descriptions
  • 1 Fruitfulness and Its Role in Normative Inquiry
  • 1.1. The Lock and Key Analogy
  • 1.2. Five Dimensions of Normative Fruitfulness
  • 1.2.1 How people will act when such norms, theories, and principles are internalized (Motivation)
  • 1.2.2 How people will be prevented from acting when such norms, theories, and principles are internalized (Prevention)
  • 1.2.3 When some norms, theories, and principles compete with bias and other problematic such items, which are more effective in "fighting back" (Resilience)
  • 1.2.4 Whether some norms, theories, and principles are better subjects of consensus among people with other commitments that diverge but are nonetheless consistent with goodwill and a desire for peaceful coexistence (Consensus)
  • 1.2.5 Whether norms, theories, and principles provide or help us to formulate more useful prescriptions than others with respect to problems that we must solve (Guidance)
  • 1.2.6 Summing Up
  • 1.3. Relations to Other Philosophical Views and Positions
  • 1.4. Fruitfulness, Theoretical Criteria, and Practical Problems
  • 1.5. Carnapian Theory Construction and Fruitfulness
  • 1.6. Haslanger's Ameliorative Inquiry and Resilience
  • 1.7. The Role of Philosophers in Empirical Research
  • 1.8. Conclusion
  • 2 What Is Distinctive About Normative Concepts
  • 2.1. Two Strands of the Conceptual Engineering Literature
  • 2.2. Concepts and Purposes
  • 2.3. Concerns About Domain Generality.
  • 2.3.1 Drawing Out the Right Contrasts
  • 2.3.1.1 Purposes
  • 2.3.1.2 Relevant Communities
  • 2.3.1.3 Blame and Accountability-Holding Practices
  • 2.3.2 Taking Stock and Relating the Three Main Contrasts to the Dimensions of Normative Fruitfulness
  • 2.4. Conclusion
  • 3 Key Objections, Responses, and Clarifications
  • 3.1. Relativism
  • 3.2. Overly Concessive
  • 3.3. Not "Taking Morality Seriously"
  • 3.4. "Wrong Kind of Reason" and "One Thought Too Many" Worries
  • 3.5. Transformative Experiences and Normative Fruitfulness
  • 3.6. Setting Overly Narrow Limits on the Philosophical Relevance of Experimental Philosophy and Empirical Research
  • 3.7. Possibility of Conflict Between Dimensions
  • 3.8. Independent Moral Justifications
  • 3.9. Normativity in Scientific Practice and in the Social Sciences
  • 3.10. Is the Theory of Normative Fruitfulness Overly Individualistic?
  • 3.11. Conclusion
  • 4 Motivation and Charitable Giving: A Case Study
  • 4.1. Motivational Fruitfulness, Philosophical Arguments, and Global Poverty
  • 4.2. Positive Duties, Negative Duties, and Moral Psychology
  • 4.3. An Argument Can Do Motivational Work, and As Well as a Strong Emotional Appeal
  • 4.4. Comparing the Effects of Positive and Negative Duty Arguments
  • 4.5. Some Counterpoints, but Overall Support for the Effects of Arguments
  • 4.6. Conclusion
  • 5 Consensus, Justice, and the Social Contract: A Second Case Study
  • 5.1. Publicity
  • 5.1.1 Prominent Interpretations
  • 5.1.2 Challenges to Publicity
  • 5.1.3 Why Publicity Matters
  • 5.2. Stability
  • 5.3. Empirical Research on Principles of Justice and Impartiality
  • 5.4. Deeper Issues with the Social Contract: What About Impartiality Frames?
  • 5.5. Are Impartiality Frame and Distributive Principle Choice Really Related?
  • Difference Principle
  • Principle of Restricted Utility
  • 5.6. Taking Stock.
  • 5.7. Conclusion
  • 6 Contrasting Approaches and Ways Forward
  • 6.1. Empirically Informed Moral and Political Philosophy and the Alternative
  • 6.2. The Search for an Impartial Outsider
  • 6.3. A Better Resolution, from Within the Theory of Normative Fruitfulness
  • 6.4. Moral and Political Philosophy Are Not (Fully) "Autonomous"
  • 6.5. Other Types of Philosophically Significant Empirical Research
  • 6.6. Two Prominent Contrasting Projects
  • 6.7. Other Projects Where Fruitfulness Concerns Are Relevant
  • 6.7.1 Publicity and Consensus Fruitfulness in Experimental Political Philosophy
  • 6.7.2 Guidance Fruitfulness in Experimental Political Philosophy
  • 6.7.3 Social Contract Theory
  • 6.7.4 Conceptual Engineering
  • 6.7.5 Moral Consistency Reasoning
  • 6.7.6 Bias and Discrimination
  • 6.7.7 Generics
  • 6.8. Conclusion
  • Bibliography
  • Index.