Evolutionary Debunking Arguments

Particularly in the past few years, there has been an intense debate about the evolutionary debunking of moral realism. The latest issue of Analysis includes a new contribution to this debate: Andreas Mogensen's "Evolutionary Debunking Arguments and the Proximate/Ultimate Distinction," which can be found here.

Evolutionary Debunking of Morality

Those working on ethical skepticism might be interested in this paper:

Christopher Toner, "Evolution, Naturalism, and the Worthwhile: A Critique of Richard Joyce's Evolutionary Debunking of Morality," Metaphilosophy 42 (2011): 520-46.

The article can be accessed here.

McGrath & King on Skepticism about Moral Knowledge

A couple of years ago, Sarah McGrath (Princeton) published "Moral Disagreement and Moral Expertise," Oxford Studies in Metaethics 3 (2008): 87-107 (the paper is available here). A recent issue of the Journal of Philosophical Research contains a debate between her and Nathan King (Whitworth):

King, "McGrath on Moral Knowledge," Journal of Philosophical Research 36 (2011): 219-33.

McGrath, "Reply to King," Journal of Philosophical Research 36 (2011): 235-41.

King, "Rejoinder to McGrath," Journal of Philosophical Research 36 (2011): 243-46.

These three pieces are available on the Philosophy Documentation Center's website.

Skepticism about Moral Expertise

Sarah McGrath (Princeton) recently published "Skepticism about Moral Expertise as a Puzzle for Moral Realism," Journal of Philosophy 108 (2011): 111-137. The paper can be found here. It can also be found on Philosophy Documentation Center's website.

Evolution and Morality

Those working on ethical skepticism will be interested to know that Guy Kahane (Oxford) recently published the paper "Evolutionary Debunking Arguments" in Noûs. At the moment, the paper can be downloaded for free here.

Moral Error Theory

Those working on contemporary ethical skepticism will be interested to know about two relatively recent papers on the moral error theory by Hallvard Lillehammer (Univ. of Cambridge):

- "Debunking Morality: Evolutionary Naturalism and Moral Error Theory," Biology and Philosophy 18 (2003). Downloadable here.

- "Moral Error Theory," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 104 (2004). Downloadable here. 

Neuroscience and Morality

Those working on ethical skepticism will be interested to know that, next April, Princeton University Press is going to publish Patricia Churchland's Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality. For information about the book, go here. On YouTube there's a video in which Churchland briefly expounds the views discussed in her book.

There has recently been much discussion of what evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and experimental psychology can tell us about the origin and epistemic credentials of our moral beliefs. The first books that come to mind right now are Richard Joyce's The Evolution of Morality (MIT Press, 2006) and the three-volume Moral Psychology (MIT Press, 2008) edited by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong.

Philosophy Now

The latest issue of Philosophy Now features some papers on ethical skepticism and relativism by Jesse Prinz, David Wong, Richard Joyce, and Richard Garner. Most of the articles are available only to subscribers. However, if you google the titles and click on the relevant results, you'll be able to access all of them.