Allen W. Wood Professions : Professor Born : 1942 Browse All Authors Top 146 quotes by Allen W. Wood As I understand it, Kantian constructivism is partly a position in normative ethics and partly a position in metaethics. In metaethics, it is the position that ethical claims have truth values, but their truth conditions consist not in a set of objective facts to which they correspond, but instead in the outcome of some procedure of deliberation resulting in decisions about what to do. Allen W. Wood outcomes decision facts For the utilitarian, there is a fact of the matter about the good (the general happiness, or whatever conception of the good the utilitarian adopts) and about which actions or moral rules would contribute to maximizing the good. For the rational intuitionist, there are truths about which actions should be done and not done. Allen W. Wood maximizing done matter Being aware of truths about what is good or right or about what we ought to do is not the same as deciding what to do. Nor can the former truths be derived from decisions about what to do, or about procedures for making such decisions, unless these procedures themselves rest in some way on the apprehension of truths about what we ought to do. Allen W. Wood deciding-what-to-do decision way Our decisions need not be seen as resting on procedures that are merely instrumental in making judgments that are reliably truth-tracking. The procedures might be more directly related than that to truths about what is right or good, or about what we ought to do, or to principles that tell us what is true about these matters. And I have no metaphysical theory about the truth-conditions of such truths, except to say that as objective truths, they must be independent of the attitudes, decisions or actions that they are supposed to justify or for which they are to offer reasons. Allen W. Wood independent decision attitude I think it is clear that what we ought to do has to be independent of our decisions about what to do, and independent of any procedures we might use in making such decisions. Allen W. Wood might-use independent thinking In any matter of moral importance, our first task, before we plunge ahead and decide what to do, is to figure out what we ought to do. Allen W. Wood tasks matter firsts We can make mistakes about what we ought to do, and these are not the same as making bad decisions about what to do. Allen W. Wood ought decision mistake If we decide rightly what to do, or use a correct procedure for making such decisions, that has to be because the decisions or the procedure rest on good reasons, and these reasons consist in the apprehension of truths about what we ought to do. Because these truths must constitute reasons for our decisions, and because in the rational order, reasons must always precede the decisions based on them, the truth conditions of claims about what we ought to cannot be reduced to, or constructed out of, decisions about what to do, or procedures for making such decisions. Allen W. Wood decision use order Our procedures of deliberation are not ways of finding out independent moral truths but instead ways of "constructing" these truths, in the process of deciding what to do. Allen W. Wood deciding-what-to-do independent way Some empirical feelings, such as sympathy, are indispensable parts of certain moral virtues. Allen W. Wood moral virtue feelings Kant regards the universalizability test for maxims as focused on a very special sort of situation: one where the agent is tempted to make an exception to a recognized duty out of self-preference. The universalizability test is supposed help the agent to see, in a particular case of moral judgment, that self-preference is not a satisfactory reason for exempting yourself from a duty you recognize. Kant thinks, as a matter of human nature, that this situation arises often enough and that we need a canon of judgment to guard against it. Allen W. Wood special self thinking Since the Enlightenment, popular religion has rejected the Enlightenment path and transformed itself into a bastion of resistance against reason. Allen W. Wood enlightenment resistance path Kant does not think that the silly commandment "universalize your maxims" is the be-all and end-all of ethics or that it provides us with some sort of general decision procedure that is supposed to tell us what to do under all circumstances. Allen W. Wood decision silly thinking The problem I see with utilitarianism, or any form of consequentialism, is not that it gets the wrong answers to moral questions. I think just about any moral theory, worked out intelligently, and applied with good judgment, would get just about the same results as any other. Allen W. Wood wrong-answers moral thinking Kant attempted to work out a view of religion and religious belief according to which existing religions could be brought into harmony with modernity, science and reason. Allen W. Wood work-out religious views I don't think Kant's approach to religion is any longer viable in its original form. But that does not mean it is simply wrong or that we cannot learn from it. Allen W. Wood doe mean thinking Kant did think he had a moral route back to rational faith in God, for those who need it, and he thought that at some level, we all do need something like it. Allen W. Wood levels needs thinking It was an important part of Mendelssohn's philosophical and religious view that the traditional rationalist proofs for God's existence should be sound an convincing. Kant thought they were not. So Kant's critique was world-shaking for Mendelssohn. Allen W. Wood philosophical religious views The picture of Kant as the 'theological Robespierre' or the "world-crusher" was first suggested by someone with whom Kant stood in a relation of philosophical disagreement but also great mutual respect: namely, Moses Mendelssohn. Allen W. Wood philosophical world firsts Many who are committed to reason and science have turned against religion altogether and treat it with fear and contempt. Allen W. Wood treats committed reason Similar Authors Bryan Stevenson professor Bruce Greenwald professor Bruce Ames professor Brian Wansink professor Brian Schmidt professor Brian Martin professor All Authors
