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Two Varieties of Moral Exemplarism
Full text linkReferences to moral exemplars run deep into the history of philosophy, as we find them featured in rather disparate context and approaches which span from virtue ethics to moral perfectionism, from existentialism to moral particularism. In the varied and growing contemporary literature on moral exemplarism, we find a number of options that can be brought down to the two rather broad yet distinctive categories of theoretical and anti-theoretical approaches. In the paper, I showcase and contrast these two varieties by taking the views of Zagzebski and Rorty as representative of, respectively, the reference to exemplars as most perfect beings to aspire to and get guidance from, and the use of them as next yet foreign beings to experiment with and get provocation from. Finally, I will draw some consequences for a conception of moral education hinged on unsettlement and transformation rather than on imitation and reproduction
The quest for moral progress. Lessons from Diamond and Rorty
No full textThe article surveys and compares aspects of the moral work of Cora Diamond and Richard Rorty in order to build a feasible picture of moral progress hinged on the notions and activities of moral understanding and moral transformation. In particular, the Diamondian realistic spirit is coupled with Rortian ironic re-descriptions, showing how moral progress can be understood, after these authors, as a matter of deepening the notions we live by and transforming ourselves by means of new ones
Unfamiliar habits: James and the ethics and politics of self-experimentation
Full text linkThe article critically surveys William James's understanding of habit in the light of his wider ethical and political concerns, showcasing its import for a contemporary philosophical usage of the term
Brandom and Pragmatism: remarks on a still open question
No full textIn what follows I shall not discuss the many details of Brandom’s recounting of pragmatism (an effort already undertaken by other commentators) as focus on the metaphilosophical stakes and outcomes of his narrative. In order to do that, in the next section I will present Brandom’s recounting of the pragmatist progress from Kant to the present time, and in the following one I will briefly articulate my concerns about this story with reference to Brandom’s exchange with two kindred contemporary versions of anti-representationalis
Introduction: normativity
No full textThis sparkling debate over the very nature of normativity, despite its apparent narrow scope and technical character, has far reaching consequences for the way we think of such a concept as informing our most diverse intellectual and ordinary practices. The nitty-gritty of philosophical arguments is no less crucial than the grand picture itself, of which the former show the point
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