SEMINARIO
S IIM
MO
ON
NA
A MO
OR
RIIN
NII
(Facoltà di Design e Arti, IUAV – Venezia)
Can ethics be naturalized?
Martedì 13 maggio 2008 – Ore 15.00
Sala Convegni
(Palazzo Fedrigotti, Corso Bettini, 31, Rovereto)
Abstract
According to Hilary Putnam, the “charm” of naturalism consists in fear: the “terror of what is
normative”. My paper deals with this terror, with the normative character of intentionality and
with the ongoing debate on the naturalization of ethics (and of rationality, as I’ll consider
ethics as a branch of the general theory of rational behavior). Starting with G.E. Moore’s
“open question argument” and equating dispositions with personal preferences and intentions
with social preferences - as defined by decision theory - my aim is to show that while
dispositions and personal preferences can be scientifically described, intentions and moral or
social preferences are inevitably olistic and normative. But though they cannot be reduced to
physics or any other natural sciences they still are scientific and rational models of ethical
choice. With Donald Davidson, I think the mistake consists in thinking that what cannot be
“reduced” or defined naturalistically doesn’t deserve to be treated as science.
Resposabile scientifico: prof. Remo Job
Dipartimento di Scienze della Cognizione e della Formazione
Corso Bettini, 31 – 38068 ROVERETO (Trento) - Tel. 0464 – 483677 – 3506 - Fax 0464 – 483698