Knowing What To Do: Imagination, Virtue, and Platonism in Ethics

350 Pages·2014·1.562 MB·English

by  Timothy Chappell

Knowing What To Do

Knowing What To Do
Imagination, Virtue, and Platonism
in Ethics
Timothy Chappell
1
3
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For Claudia, Miriam, Imogen, Thalia, and Róisín
Itwaslikehavinganightmareaboutamanwhohadgotitintohisheadthat
triêrêswastheGreekfor‘steamer’,andwhenitwaspointedouttohimthat
descriptions of triremes in Greek writers were not at any rate very good
descriptionsofsteamers,repliedtriumphantly,‘ThatisjustwhatIsay.These
Greek philosophers were terribly muddle-headed, and their theory of
steamers is all wrong.’ If you tried to explain that triêrês does not mean
‘steamer’ at all but something different, he would reply ‘Then what does it
mean?’ and in ten minutes he would show you that you didn’t know; you
couldn’t draw a trireme, or make a model of one, or even describe exactly
howitworked.Andhavingannihilatedyou,hewouldgoonfortherestofhis
lifetranslatingtriêrêsas‘steamer’.
R.G.Collingwood,Autobiography(1939),p.64
Any victory for psychological reality over theoretical simplification and
idealisationmustalways,foraphilosopher,beanachievement.
AnthonyPrice,VirtueandReasoninPlatoandAristotle(2011),p.280
(cid:1)(cid:3) ªaæ(cid:4)(cid:5)E ¼(cid:6)Łæø(cid:7)(cid:5)(cid:8)I(cid:6)(cid:1)(cid:9)ººÆª(cid:10)Æ(cid:1)B(cid:8)łıåB(cid:8)ÆP(cid:1)(cid:5)F;
Mk.8.37
Acknowledgements
It seems that I have been writing this book for about a decade now. This is not
justamatterofdraftsabandonedasunsatisfactory,thoughitispartlythat.Some
oftheseabandoneddraftsdatebacktowellbeforeIwroteEthicsandExperience,
in 2007–8. It is also that what seemed a diversity of ideas, first expressed in a
diversityofplaces,haveturnedouttoconvergeintoonemoreorlesscontinuous
chainofargument.Moreorlesscontinuous:thoughifthisbook’scontentsarein
variouswayslessthanacompletelystreamlineddeductivesystem,thatishardly
something that will bother me, given this book’s message. Below, I give a list of
placeswhereearlierversionsofpartsofthisbookhaveappeared.
Given the length of time these issues have been with me, I am undoubtedly
indebted to more people and institutions than I can now remember. I should
thanktheAHRCforasix-monthresearch-leavegrantin2011–12thathelpedme
bring the typescript of this book from something nowhere near to something
pretty close to completion. I am also grateful to my own institution, The Open
University,foritsgenerousandcollegialsupport,andtotheUniversitiesofOslo,
Reykjavik, Stirling, and St Andrews, where I have held visiting posts during the
timeIhavebeenworkingontheseideas.Irecallwithgratitudeandpleasurethe
help, criticism, encouragement, and discussion of a very large number of Open
Universitystudents,notallofwhosenamesIeverlearned.AndIcanmentionby
name at least the following interlocutors: Tom Angier, Liz Ashford, Margaret
Atkins,GuyAxtell,AlexBarber,MarciaBaron,ChrisBelshaw,SimonBlackburn,
Raymond Boyce, Michael Brady, Tal Brewer (one of OUP’s two readers of the
typescript), Sarah Broadie, Alan Carter, Claudia Chappell, Cristina Chimisso,
Sam Coleman, Peter Conradi, Elizabeth Cooke, Christopher Coope, John Cot-
tingham, Roger Crisp, Rowan Cruft, Garrett Cullity, Ashley Cummins, Nick
Denyer, Cora Diamond, Julian Dodd, Nick Everitt, Hallvard Fossheim, Keith
Frankish, Miranda Fricker, Helen Frowe, Christopher Gill, Peter Goldie, Laur-
ence Goldstein, Richard Gombrich, Gunnar Gudmundsson, Peter Hacker, John
Haldane, Stephen Halliwell, Andy Hamilton, Edward Harcourt, Victoria Harri-
son,AllanHazlitt,DouglasHedley,BrentHepburn,BradHooker,SimonHope,
RobHopkins,PaulHurley(OUP’sotherreader),RosalindHursthouse,Michael
Inwood,JenniferJackson,JeffreyJohn,MikaelKarlsson,MatthewKieran,Simon
Kirchin,KelvinKnight,GeraldLang,MarkLeBar,JimmyLenman,SabinaLovi-
bond, Jonathan Lowe, Morwenna Ludlow, Janet McLean, Fiona Macpherson,
viii acknowledgements
Derek Matravers, Anna Marmodoro, Alan Millar, Adrian Moore, Michael
Morris, Adam Morton, Tim Mulgan, Andy Mullins, Andrew Murray, Mark
Nelson, David Oderberg, Tim O’Hagan, Onora O’Neill, David Papineau, Derek
Parfit, Julia Peters, Jon Phelan, Jon Pike, Tom Pink, Andrew Pinsent, Anthony
Price, Carolyn Price, Duncan Pritchard, Mike Ridge, David Robjant, Amélie
Rorty, Catherine Rowett, Paul Russell, Ben Saunders, Dory Scaltsas, David
Sedley,KieranSetiya,JohnSkorupski,SaulSmilansky,DavidSmith,NickSparks,
Mark Sprevak, Eleonore Stump, Christine Swanton, Roger Teichmann, Alan
Thomas, Valerie Tiberius, Jens Timmermann, Peter Vardy, Ralph Walker,
Keith Ward, Ralph Wedgwood, Alan Weir, Mike Wheeler, René van Wouden-
berg,MarkWynn,LindaZagzebski,NickZangwill.Oneofthegreatpleasuresof
studying philosophy is the dialogical nature of the subject, the fact that it
proceeds so much of the time through discussion. I count myself lucky to have
hadsomanyandsogooddiscussants.
My biggest debt, as always, is to my children, Miriam, Imogen, Thalia, and
Róisín, and to my wife, Claudia, for their love and company. This book is
dedicatedtothemall.
Earlier versions of different sections of the argument of this book have
appeared in Philosophical Investigations, The Southern Journal of Philosophy,
Bradley Studies, The Journal of Moral Philosophy, The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, and Topoi; in Lawrence Jost and Julian Wuerth (eds), Perfecting
Virtue (Cambridge UP, 2010); in Julia Peters (ed.), Aristotelian Ethics in Con-
temporary Perspective (Routledge, 2013); in Alejandro Vigo and Ana Marta
González (eds), Racionalidad Práctica (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag 2010);
andinTimothyChappell(ed.),TheProblemofMoralDemandingness(Palgrave
Macmillan,August2009).
Contents
Introduction 1
1. WhatMakesaGoodDecision? 7
2. ThreeKindsofMoralImagination 29
3. Intuition,System,andthe‘Paradox’ofDeontology 60
4. ImpartialBenevolenceandPartialLove 80
5. InternalReasonsandtheHeart’sDesire 107
6. OntheVeryIdeaofCriteriaforPersonhood 131
7. GloryasanEthicalIdea 158
8. BeautyandNobilityinEthics 185
9. MoralCertainties 208
10. WhyEthicsisHard 232
11. TheVarietiesofKnowledgeinPlatoandAristotle 263
12. PlatonisticVirtueEthics 295
Bibliography 323
Index 335