the human characteristic - of moral behaviour -
(and I don't mean this in a behaviouristic sense)
can be looked at from two points of view - from the inside -
the activity - mental - of the moral agent - or objectively -
in the sense of - description - of what people do -
and psychology goes a little way to this end -
but to get the real picture you need - moral philosophy -
for here you have the maps and pictures of
moral states
this is what I think happens in moral philosophy -
from the inside - the moral philosopher is just the moral
agent (writ large as it were)
and the kinds of questions asked - are peculiarly
moral questions
what is good - what is right -
these are questions that have a particular form -
logical form -
firstly - any answer given to such a question -
is what I will call open - it is not closed
- in the way that we say an empirical question is -
secondly - any such answer has the character of necessity
if I think x is the good - 'y' the right thing to do -
in general - these conclusions demand assent
they are not optional -
so we have a curious state of affairs -
the answer demands but the question stays open
therefore
morality
what this means is that we live in - as moral agents -
an open necessity
and it is this that accounts for the fact that moral agents
operate with an indeterminate definitiveness
what I mean is this -
we have to address ethical issues in a definite manner -
but the questions (moral) are never closed off
and this I think goes some way to accounting for the fact
that a typical moral agent will in the course of a moral
life move through a series of necessities - a number of
moral views -
and not regard himself as - contradictory - or afflicted
with paradox
such is the key characteristic of the moral life -
to be free (not closed off) and definitive
just to return for a minute to what philosophers do
like moral agents they carry on - as if they are solving
problems -
this is an archetypal form of moral behavior
in fact I think what philosophers do here - is elucidate
and describe - decisions made
this is what the whole of moral theory - meta and normative -
is to the service of
and what we in fact get - in moral theory - is possible
accounts of decision
- maps if you like - one territory - many maps
