CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico



AUTONOMIA E ANTI-REALISMO NA

EPISTEMOLOGIA MORAL PÓS-KANTIANA

Nythamar Fernandes de Oliveira



Departamento de Filosofia

Pontifícia Universidade Católica

do Rio Grande do Sul

PUCRS - Brazil



Porto Alegre, 2003-2005



"Reasons, Reasonableness, and Rationality in Kant and Rawls"



ABSTRACT: The goal of this research project is to investigate how a Kantian-inspired cognitivist, metaethical account of pure practical reason may respond to the moral problem inherent in the Humean is/ought thesis and the belief/desire relation, as formulated by Michael Smith's platitude that what a person has reason to do is what she would desire to do if she were fully rational (1994, p. 150). I am particularly interested in a constructivist reading of Kant, so as to avoid the pitfalls of opposing rationalism to anti-realism and squaring moral realism with intuitionism. By resorting to the reformulations advocated by Rawls, Korsgaard, and O'Neill, giving reasons to act ("normative reasons") can be shown to entail precisely what Kant meant by stating that pure reason ought to be practical, as "motivating reasons" call for a self-determining of the will (autonomy). Although orthodox readings of Kant's categorical imperative seem to preclude any possible relation between a cognitivist rationalism and desires or pro-attitudes toward the intended action, a constructivist recasting of the procedural device of representation allows for such a relation, as reasonableness requires rationality to be universalizable just as the desires of moral, free persons are calibrated by fully-reasoned beliefs ("practicality requirement"). What has been termed the "reasonable" by Rawls roughly corresponds thus to the public, autonomous function of Kant's good will (Wille) as the "rational" may be said to play the role of a heteronomous "free will" (freier Willkür), i.e., as the faculty of desire realizes the normative, self-grounding work of reason (Vernunft). Hence, in order to assess the truth and falsehood of everyday claims about what people have reason to do, one must take into account her beliefs and desires. The project ultimately sets out to investigate what legitimizes one's ordinary practice of holding people responsible and its institutional implications in legal codifications.



Key Words: autonomy, belief, cognitivist and noncognitivist models in ethics, desire, moral realism and antirealism, motivation, normativity, rationality, reasons



Research background

Over the past decade, I have been committed to studying and conducting research on moral reasoning in both cognitivist and noncognitivist models of ethics and political philosophy. My PhD studies led me to the writing of a thesis on Foucault's reading of Kant and Nietzsche, as two paradigmatic representatives of the cognitivist and noncognitivist strands, respectively, in 1994, and since then I have been studying different authors such as Hobbes, Hume, Locke, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Foucault, Rawls, and Habermas. From 1995 through 1998, I conducted multi-disciplinary research in Rawls's and Habermas's critical appropriations of Kant's ethics, supported by the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq). My post-doctoral research at the New School for Social Research was part of that project. Since 1999, my research projects have focussed on moral epistemology, public reason, and autonomy. My ongoing research project is on the conception of moral epistemology, anti-realism and autonomy in Kant and Rawls. I propose thus to contribute to the research in "Reasons and Rationality," with the present project on Kant's conception of practical reason and contemporary appropriations by authors such as Allison, Brink, Guyer, Hare, Hill, Herman, Höffe, Korsgaard, Nagel, O'Neill, Rawls, Schneewind, Wood, and others.



Preliminary Bibliography

Allison, Henry E., 1990. Kant's Theory of Freedom. Cambridge University Press.

---------, 1996. Idealism and Freedom: Essays on Kant's Theoretical and Practical Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.

Almeida, Claudio de, 2001. "What Moore´s paradox is about," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research vol. 62, no. 1 (January2001): 33-58.

----------, 2000. "Moore´s paradox," in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, ed. Robert Audi. Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Almeida, Guido A. de. "Kant e o 'facto da razão': 'cognitivismo' ou 'decisionismo' moral?". Studia Kantiana 1/1 (1998): 53-81.

Anderson, Lyle V., 1985. "Moral Dilemmas, Deliberation, and Choice," The Journal of Philosophy 82 : 139-162.

Atkinson, R.F., 1965. "Consistency in Ethics," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society supp, vol. 39 : 125-138.

Audi, Robert, 2001.The architecture of reason: the structure and substance of rationality. Oxford U. Press, 2001.

----------, 1999. "Moral knowledge and ethical pluralism," in The Blackwell guide to epistemology, edited by John Greco and Ernest Sosa. Blackwell, 1999.

----------, 1997. Moral Knowledge and Ethical Character. New York: Oxford University Press.

----------, 1998. Epistemology : a contemporary introduction to the theory of knowledge. London : Routledge.

Ayer, A.J., 1936. Language, Truth and Logic. London: Gollancz.

Baron, Marcia, Philip Pettit, and Michael Slote, 1998. Three Methods of Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell.

Baumrin, Bernard H., and Peter Lupu, 1984. "A Common Occurrence: Conflicting Duties," Metaphilosophy 15 : 77-90.

Baynes, Kenneth, 1992. The Normative Grounds of Social Criticism: Kant, Rawls, Habermas. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Beck, Lewis White, A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason. University of Chicago Press, 1960.

Bernstein, Richard J., 1971. Praxis and Action. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

---------, 1985. Beyond Objectivism and Relativism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

---------, 1976. The Restructuring of Social and Political Theory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Blackburn, Simon, 1984. Spreading the Word. New York: Oxford University Press.

---------, 1993. Essays in Quasi-Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

---------, 1996. "Dilemmas: Dithering, Plumping, and Grief," in Mason (1996): 127-139.

Bradley, F. H., 1927. Ethical Studies, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brink, David O., 1989. Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics, New York: Cambridge University Press.

---------.1994. "Moral Conflict and Its Structure," The Philosophical Review 103 (1994) : 215-247 [Reprinted in Mason (1996): 102-126]

Campbell, Richmond and Bruce Hunter, editors, 2000. Moral Epistemology Naturalized. Calgary University Press.

Carey, Toni Vogel, 1985. "What Conflict of Duty is Not," Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 66 : 204-215.

Castañeda, Hector-Neri, 1974. The Structure of Morality, Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.

---------. 1978. "Conflicts of Duties and Morality," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 38: 564-574.

Chambers, Simone, 1997. Discourse and Procedural Ethics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Chisholm, Roderick M., 1963. "Contrary-to-Duty Imperatives and Deontic Logic," Analysis 24 : 33-36.

Dahl, Norman O., 1974. "'Ought' Implies 'Can'" and Deontic Logic," Philosophia 4 : 485-511.

---------. 1996. "Morality, Moral Dilemmas, and Moral Requirements," in Mason(1996): 86-101.

Dancy, Jonathan, 1993. Moral Reasons. Oxford: Blackwell.

----------, 1999. "Moral epistemology," in The Blackwell guide to epistemology, edited by John Greco and Ernest Sosa. Blackwell, 1999.

DeCew, Judith Wagner, 1990. "Moral Conflicts and Ethical Relativism," Ethics 101 : 27-41.

Donagan, Alan, 1984. "Consistency in Rationalist Moral Systems," The Journal of Philosophy 81 : 291-309 [Reprinted in Gowans (1987): 271-290]

---------. The Theory of Morality, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.

Feldman, Fred, 1986. Doing the Best We Can, Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co.

Foot, Philippa, 1983. "Moral Realism and Moral Dilemma," The Journal of Philosophy 80 : 379-398, [Reprinted in Gowans (1987): 271-290,]

Frankfurt, Harry, 1971. "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person", Journal of Philosophy 68 (1971): 5-20.

Gewirth, Alan, 1978. Reason and Morality, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gibbard, Allan, 1988. 'Hare's Analysis of "Ought" and its Implications', in Seanor and Fotion 1988.

Goodin, Robert, 1989. No Smoking: Ethical Issues. The University of Chicago Press.

-----------, 1992. Motivating Public Morality Blackwell.

Gowans, Christopher W. (editor), 1987. Moral Dilemmas, New York: Oxford University Press.

Gregor, Mary, 1963. Laws of Freedom: A Study of Kant's Method of Applying the Categorical Imperative in the Metaphysik der Sitten. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1963.

Guttenplan, Samuel, 1980. "Moral Realism and Moral Dilemma," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 80 : 61-80.

Guyer, Paul (org.), 1992. The Cambridge Companion to Kant. Cambridge University Press.

Guyer, Paul, 1996. Kant and the Experience of Freedom. Cambridge University Press.

Hare, R. M., 1952. The Language of Morals. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

-----------, 1955. 'Universalizability', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 55 (1954-55).

-----------, 1963. Freedom and Reason. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

-----------, 1981. Moral Thinking, its levels, method, and point. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

-----------, 1988. 'Comments', in Seanor and Fotion 1988.

-----------, 1989. Essays in ethical theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Harsanyi, J. C., 1976. Essays on Ethics, Social Behavior, and Scientific Explanation. Reidel.

-----------, 1977. Rational Behavior and Bargaining Equilibrium in Games and Social Situations. Cambridge University Press.

-----------, 1982. 'Morality and the Theory of Rational Behaviour', in Sen and Williams.

Herman, Barbara, 1993. The Practice of Moral Judgment. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Hill, Thomas E., Jr. 1983. "Moral Purity and the Lesser Evil," The Monist 66 : 213-232.

---------, 1992. "A Kantian Perspective on Moral Rules," Philosophical Perspectives 6 : 285-304.

---------, 1996. " Moral Dilemmas, Gaps, and Residues: A Kantian Perspective," in Mason (1996): 167-198.

Höffe, Otfried, 1990. Kategorische Rechtsprinzipien: Ein Kontrapunkt der Moderne. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

---------, 1979. Ethik und Politik. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

---------. "O imperativo categórico do direito: uma interpretação da 'Introdução à Doutrina do Direito'". Studia Kantiana 1/1 (1998): 203-236.

---------. Introduction à la philosophie pratique de Kant. Paris: Vrin, 1993.

---------. Principes du droit: Éthique, théorie juridique et philosophie sociale. Paris: Cerf, 1993.

Howard, Dick, 1980. "Kant's Political Theory: The Virtue of His Vices". Review of Metaphysics 34 (1980): 325-350.

Hume, David, 1739-40. A Treatise of Human Nature: Being and Attempt to introduce the experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects. New York: Prometheus.[1992]

---------, 1758. Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary. Oxford U.Press [1993]

---------, 1751. An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals. Oxford U.Press [1997]

Kant, Immanuel, 1970. Kant: Political Writings, org. Hans Reiss, Cambridge University Press.

---------, 1788. Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. (KpV)

---------, 1785. Grundlegung der Metaphysik der Sitten (GMS)

---------, 1797. Metaphysik der Sitten: Rechtslehre - Tugendlehre.

---------, 1793. Über den Gemeinspruch: Das mag in der Theorie richtig sein, taugt aber nicht für die Praxis.

---------, 1784. Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht

---------, 1795, Zum ewigen Frieden. (ZeF)

(All edited by Wilhelm Weischedel; Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1989; "Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft" in 12 vols.)

---------, 1963. Lectures on Ethics. org. L.W. Beck. Hackett.

Kersting,Wolfgang, 1984. Wohlgeordnete Freiheit: Immanuel Kants Rechts- und Staatsphilosophie. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1984.

---------, 1993. John Rawls zur Einführung. Hamburg: Junius.

Kerszberg, Pierre, 1997. Critique and Totality. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

---------, 1999. Kant et la Nature. Paris: Les Belles-Lettres.

Klein, Peter, l981. Certainty: A Refutation of Scepticism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

----------, 1995. "Certainty," in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, ed. R. Audi. Cambridge University Press.

----------, 1998. "Foundationalism and the Infinite Regress of Reasons," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 58.4 (1998): 919-925.

Kolenda, Konstantin, 1975. "Moral Conflict and Universalizability," Philosophy 50 : 460-465.

Korsgaard, Christine, 1996. Sources of Normativity. Cambridge University Press.

---------, 1997. Creating the Kingdom of Ends.Cambridge University Press.

Kukathas, Chandran and Philip Pettit, 1990. Rawls: A Theory of Justice and its critics. Oxford: Polity.

Lemmon, E.J., 1965. "Deontic Logic and the Logic of Imperatives," Logique et Analyse 8 : 39-71.

Marino, Patricia, 2001. "Moral Dilemmas, Collective Responsibility, and Moral Progress," Philosophical Studies 104 : 203-225.

Mason, H.E., (editor), 1996. Moral Dilemmas and Moral Theory, New York: Oxford University Press.

McCarthy, Thomas, 1994. "Kantian Constructivism and Reconstructivism: Rawls and Habermas in Dialogue," Ethics 105 (October 1994): 44-63.

McConnell, Terrance, 1988. "Interpersonal Moral Conflicts," American Philosophical Quarterly 25 : 25-35.

---------. 1981. "Moral Blackmail," Ethics 91 : 544-567.

Moore, G.E., 1903. Principia ethica. Cambridge University Press.

Nagel, Thomas, 1995. "Moral epistemology", in Society's Choices: Social and Ethical Decision Making in Biomedicine (1995), pp. 201-214.

---------, 1979. Mortal Questions, New York: Cambridge University Press.

O'Neill, Onora, 1989. Constructions of Reason: Explorations of Kant's Practical Philosophy, Cambridge University Press.

Oliveira, Nythamar Fernandes de, 1999. Tractatus ethico-politicus: Genealogia do ethos moderno. Porto Alegre: Edipucrs.

---------, 2001. "Kant, Rawls, and the Moral Foundations of the Political", in Kant und die Berliner Aufklärung: Akten des IX Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, org. Volker Gerhardt et al., Berlin: W. de Gruyter, pp. 286-295.

---------, 2002. "Les défis normatifs de la justice globale selon John Rawls," in Jean-François Mattéi and Denis Rosenfield, eds., Barbarie et civilisation. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

---------, 2003. Rawls. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar.

---------, 2003b. "Justiça e Tolerância segundo Rawls," in Justiça e Política: Homenagem a Otfried Höffe, eds. Nythamar de Oliveira and Draiton de Souza. Porto Alegre: Edipucrs, 2003, pp. 431-450.

Parfit, Derek, 1973. "Later Selves and Moral Principles," in Philosophy and Personal Relations, ed. Alan Montefiore, p. 137-169. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Pettit, Philip and Michael Smith, 1996. "Freedom in Belief and Desire," Journal of Philosophy 93 (1996): 429-449.

Pietroski, Paul, 1993. "Prima Facie Obligations, Ceteris Paribus Laws in Moral Theory," Ethics 103 : 489-515.

Pogge, Thomas W., 1989. Realizing Rawls. Ithaca: Cornell.

---------, 1999. "Human Flourishing and Universal Justice," Social Philosophy 16:1 (1999): 33-61.

---------, 2000. "The Moral Demands of Global Justice," Dissent 47/4 (2000): 37-43.

---------, 2003. "Achieving Democracy," in Justiça e Política: Homenagem a Otfried Höffe, eds. Nythamar de Oliveira and Draiton de Souza. Porto Alegre: Edipucrs, 2003, pp. 471-500.

Prior, A.N., 1954. "The Paradoxes of Derived Obligation," Mind 63 : 64-65.

Rabinowicz, Wlodzimierz, 1978, "Utilitarianism and Conflicting Obligations," Theoria 44 : 1924.

Railton, Peter, 1992, "Pluralism, Determinacy, and Dilemma," Ethics 102 : 720-742.

---------. 1996, "The Diversity of Moral Dilemma," in Mason (1996): 140-166.

Rawls, John, 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

---------, 1993. Political Liberalism, New York: Columbia University Press.

---------, 1999. Collected Papers. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

---------, 1980. "Kantian Constructivism in Moral Philosophy." Journal of Philosophy 77 (1980): 515-72.

---------, 1989. "Themes in Kant's Moral Philosophy",in Eckart Förster, editor, Kant's Transcendental Deductions: The Three Critiques and the Opus Postumum, Stanford University Press.

---------, 2000a. Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy, ed. Barbara Herman. Harvard University Press.

---------, 2000b. Law of the Peoples. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

---------, 2001. Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, ed. Erin Kelly. Harvard University Press.

Rohden, Valerio (ed.), 1997. Kant e a Instituição da Paz. Porto Alegre: Goethe Institut.

---------, 1981. Interesse da Razão e Liberdade. São Paulo: Ática.

---------, 1998. "O humano e racional na Ética". Studia Kantiana 1/1 (1998): 307-321.

Rosen, Allen D., 1993. Kant's Theory of Justice. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Ross, W.D., 1930. The Right and the Good, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

---------. 1939. The Foundations of Ethics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sandel, Michael, 1982. Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. Cambridge University Press.

Sartorius, Rolf, 1975. Individual Conduct and Social Norms: A Utilitarian Account of Social Union and the Rule of Law, Encino, CA: Dickenson Publishing.

Sayre-McCord, Geoffrey, 1986. "Deontic Logic and the Priority of Moral Theory," Nous 20 (1986): 179-197.

---------, 1994. "On Why Hume's 'General Point of View' isn't Ideal --and shouldn't be," Social Philosophy and Policy 11 (1994): 202-228.

---------, 1996. "Coherentist Epistemology and Moral Theory," in Sinnott-Armstrong and Timmons.

Schneewind, J. B., 1997. The Invention of Autonomy. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Seanor, Douglas and Fotion, N., eds. 1988. Hare and Critics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Sen, Amartya and Williams, B., eds., 1982. Utilitarianism and Beyond. Cambridge University Press.

Sidgwick, Henry, 1907. The Methods of Ethics, 7th ed. New York: Macmillan.

Singer, Peter, 1974. 'Sidgwick and Reflective Equilibrium', The Monist 58, 1974.

Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter and Mark Timmons, eds., 1996. Moral Knowledge? New Readings in Moral Epistemology, pp. 137-189. New York: Oxford University Press.

Slote, Michael, 1985. "Utilitarianism, Moral Dilemmas, and Moral Cost," American Philosophical Quarterly 22 (1985): 161-168.

Smith, Holly M., 1986. "Moral Realism, Moral Conflict, and Compound Acts," The Journal of Philosophy 83 (1986): 341-345.

Smith, Michael, 1994. The Moral Problem. Oxford: Blackwell.

--------- (ed.), 1995. Meta-Ethics. Aldershot: Dartmouth.

--------- , 1997. "In Defence of The Moral Problem : A Reply to Brink, Copp and Sayre-McCord," Ethics October (1997): 84-119.

Sosa, Ernest, 2000. "Modal and Other A Priori Epistemology: How Can We Know What is Possible and What Impossible?" supplement to the Southern Journal of Philosophy (2000).

---------, 1998. "Skepticism and the Internal/External Divide," in Blackwell Guide to Epistemology (Blackwell Publishers, 1998), ed. by John Greco and Ernest Sosa.

---------, 1997a. "Mythology of the Given," History of Philosophy Quarterly (1997).

---------, 1997b. "Reflective Knowledge in the Best Circles," Journal of Philosophy XCIV (1997): 410-30.

Statman, Daniel, 1996 "Hard Cases and Moral Dilemmas," Law and Philosophy 15 : 117-148.

Steiner, Hillel, 1973. "Moral Conflict and Prescriptivism," Mind 82 : 586-591.

Stocker, Michael, 1971. "'Ought' and 'Can'," Australasian Journal of Philosophy 49 : 303-316.

Strasser, Mark, 1987. "Guilt, Regret, and Prima Facie Duties," The Southern Journal of Philosophy 25 : 133-146.

Sullivan, Roger, 1989. Immanuel Kant's Moral Theory. Cambridge University Press.

Swank, Casey, 1986. "Dirty Hands and Conflicts of Values and of Desires in Aristotle's Ethics," Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 67 : 36-61.

---------. 1987. "Moral Conflicts: What They Are and What They Show," Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 68 : 104-123.

---------. 1990. Plural and Conflicting Values, New York: Oxford University Press.

---------, 1985. "Reasons, Dilemmas, and the Logic of 'Ought'," Analysis 45 (1985): 111-116.

Tannsjo, Torbjorn, 1985. "Moral Conflict and Moral Realism," The Journal of Philosophy 82 (1985): 113-117.

Terra, Ricardo R., 1995. A Política Tensa. São Paulo: Iluminuras.

---------, 1998. "A arquitetônica da filosofia prática kantiana". Studia Kantiana 1/1 (1998): 291-305.

Thomason, Richmond, 1981. "Deontic Logic and the Role of Freedom in Moral Deliberation," in Risto Hilpinen (ed.), New Studies in Deontic Logic, Dordrecht: Reidel, 177-186.

Thomason, Richmond, 1981. "Deontic Logic as Founded on Tense Logic," in Risto Hilpinen (ed.), New Studies in Deontic Logic, Dordrecht: Reidel, 165-176.

Trigg, Roger, 1971. "Moral Conflict," Mind 80 (1971): 41-55.

Vallentyne, Peter, 1987. "Prohibition Dilemmas and Deontic Logic," Logique et Analyse 30 (1987): 113-122.

---------,1989. "Two Types of Moral Dilemmas," Erkenntnis 30 (1989): 301-318.

---------,1992. "Moral Dilemmas and Comparative Conceptions of Morality," The Southern Journal of Philosophy 30 (1992): 117-124.

Van Fraassen, Bas, 1973. "Values and the Heart's Command," The Journal of Philosophy 70 (1973): 5-19, [Reprinted in Gowans (1987): 138-153]

Walzer, Michael, 1972. "Political Action: The Problem of Dirty Hands," Philosophy and Public Affairs 2 (1972): 160-180.

Williams, Bernard, 1965. "Ethical Consistency," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, supp, vol. 39 : 103-124, [Reprinted in Gowans (1987): 115-137,]

---------. 1966. "Consistency and Realism," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, supp, vol. 40 : 1-22.

---------. 1972. Morality: An Introduction to Ethics, New York: Harper & Row.

Wood, Allen, 1970. Kant's Moral Religion. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

---------, 1999. Kant's Ethical Thought. New York: Cambridge University Press.

---------, ed., 1978. Kant's Lectures on Philosophical Theology. Ithaca, Cornell U. Press.

---------, ed., 1984. Self and Nature in Kant's Philosophy. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

Zimmerman, Michael J., 1987. "Remote Obligation," American Philosophical Quarterly 24 (1987): 199-205.

---------, 1996. The Concept of Moral Obligation, New York: Cambridge University Press.

---------, 1988. An Essay on Moral Responsibility, Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.

---------.1990. "Where Did I Go Wrong?" Philosophical Studies 58 (1990): 83-106.

---------. 1992. "Cooperation and Doing the Best One Can," Philosophical Studies 65 (1992): 283-304.



RESUMO (Abstract in Portuguese)

O campo delimitado pela "epistemologia moral", seguindo Ernest Sosa e outros filósofos analíticos de língua inglesa, tem procurado dar conta do problema suscitado pelo confronto entre questões de ontologia e linguagem e as mais recentes elaborações de uma filosofia moral pós-metafísica, sobretudo a partir dos trabalhos de G.E. Moore, no início do século, e mais recentemente de R.M. Hare, D.O. Brink, D. Davidson e T. Nagel. Após mais de sete anos dedicados à pesquisa ético-política em torno das apropriações que John Rawls e Jürgen Habermas nos oferecem do legado kantiano, proponho-me a direcionar minha investigação para o campo da fundamentação ética do agir humano à luz das recentes contribuições da filosofia analítica da linguagem para a teoria moral. Estou particularmente interessado nas apropriações do modelo da autonomia por autores que compartilham de um anti-realismo moral em contraposição ao realismo tradicionalmente associado à filosofia analítica da linguagem. Partindo de minhas investigações sobre a teoria do significado e a teoria da justiça --resultados traduzidos pela redação do Tractatus ethico-politicus em 1999 e do Tractatus practico-theoreticus (em via de conclusão, 2003)--pretendo reexaminar a questão específica da normatividade (razoabilidade normativa) subjacente à autonomia política (racionalidade motivacional), aprofundando e dando continuidade à minha pesquisa sobre os modelos de teoria da justiça desenvolvidos por Rawls e Habermas à luz de suas respectivas apropriações críticas da filosofia ético-política de Kant, enfocando particularmente os problemas do realismo vs. anti-realismo, intuicionismo vs. construtivismo, externalismo vs. internalismo, em uma abordagem que efetivamente responda aos desafios de uma concepção pós-metafísica de argumentação moral (moral reasoning). Assim como a lógica se apresenta como uma ciência formal do raciocínio correto (correct reasoning), a argumentação moral demanda um raciocínio moral defensável, razoável, de forma que a relação entre inferência lógico-epistêmica (epistemologia moral, lógica modal e lógica deôntica) e filosofia prática seja acentuada na abordagem do problema theoria-praxis. O problema clássico de relacionar o que é matematizável (inferência e validade estabelecidas pela lógica) com o que não pode ser reduzido à matemática, notavelmente nos domínios das ciências humanas e ciências sociais, leva-nos a re-situar a ética e a moral enquanto teorias normativas do comportamento humano (respectivamente, enquanto meta-ética e ética normativa) em sua problemática relação entre ação, linguagem e pensamento, mundo social e subjetividade, realidade e representação, linguagem natural e linguagem formal. Trata-se, portanto, de aprofundar os conceitos de autonomia e anti-realismo já estudados em Rawls, ao confrontá-los com conceitos tais como imputabilidade, universalizabilidade, prescritivismo, lógica deôntica, dilemas morais, internalismo e externalismo, coerentismo e lógica modal, elaborados numa epistemologia moral. Ao enfocar o problema específico da autonomia e do anti-realismo na epistemologia moral pós-kantiana pretendo revisitar, deste modo, uma teoria da ação que faça jus às mais importantes contribuições lingüístico-analíticas e fenomenológico- hermenêuticas de autores que tematizaram esse problema, sobretudo após as diferentes recepções do debate Rawls-Habermas.

Seguindo uma concepção anti-realista de inspiração kantiana em torno da reformulação pós-metafísica da normatividade e da autonomia, em particular na concepção de pessoa humana enquanto cidadãos morais individuados pela socialização, tem sido investigado (1) em que medida podemos reconciliar o construtivismo político de Rawls e o realismo mitigado de Habermas sem incorrermos nas aporias do atual debate entre universalistas (liberais) e comunitaristas (social-democratas), mostrando que (2) tanto o liberalismo político quanto o socialismo liberal defendem um igualitarismo razoável que logra articular, de um lado, liberdade e igualdade e, de outro lado, igualdade e desigualdade, (3) como podemos dar conta do problema da verdade levantado pela crítica de Rawls a Habermas sem necessariamente voltarmos ao objetivismo do realismo científico ou a uma epistemologia naturalizada e, finalmente, (4) como podemos corroborar o procedimentalismo kantiano sem incorrermos num conseqüencialismo utilitarista (intuicionismo moral) ou numa versão conservadora de reformismo político (realismo político conservador).

O estado atual das pesquisas sobre a autonomia moral e política divide-se entre aqueles que defendem uma concepção utilitarista do realismo moral em Kant (autores de língua inglesa, sobretudo ligados aos trabalhos de Richard M. Hare e epígonos) e aqueles que seguem uma concepção procedimentalista ou construtivista do anti-realismo na filosofia moral de Kant (Rawls, Habermas, O'Neill, Pogge, Wood, Schneewind). A partir de críticas do primeiro ao segundo grupo de autores, notavelmente após a publicação do livro seminal de David O. Brink, Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 1989), vários estudos têm procurado resgatar um modelo cognitivista em ética e filosofia política, de forma a evitar os dilemas e aporias decorrentes da mera redução do realismo ao intuicionismo ou da rotulação de falácia naturalista às abordagens que operam um retorno pós-kantiano a Hume. O ceticismo e o não-cognitivismo em moral têm se mostrado, com efeito, bem mais fecundos para o problema da moral do que nos fazem crer os novos anti-fundacionalismos modernos e pós-modernos. A fim de direcionar minhas pesquisas nesta etapa, proponho revisitar os argumentos elaborados pelo polêmico estudo de Michael Smith, The Moral Problem (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), de forma a investigar em que sentido o construtivismo rawlsiano merece a denominação de "uma deontologia com face humeana" ("deontology with a Humean face," Sandel 1982, p. 13-14).


Trata-se de um projeto de pesquisa individual, com interface com o Núcleo de Pesquisa Interdisciplinar em Teoria da Justiça e Cultura Política e o Projeto de Pesquisa Interdisciplinar "Cultura Política e Justiça Global" CUJUS.

OTHER RELATED SITES:

JOHN RAWLS

Immanuel KANT

Moral Epistemology Seminar at PUCRS

Stanford Encyclopedia entry on Moral Epistemology

Rawls's normative conception of the person

MODAL LOGIC


LÓGICA MODAL


LÓGICA DEÔNTICA


DEONTIC LOGIC


"EPISTEMOLOGY," by Peter Klein (Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy)


"SKEPTICISM," by Peter Klein (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)


ETHICA KANTIANA


DESCARTES & HUME



Back to/Voltar a Home Page:
Nythamar de Oliveira