Exemplarist moral theory / Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski. [print]

Why exemplarism? ; Introduction My theory of theory Direct reference Direct reference to exemplars The theoretical structure Some initial worries Conclusion Admiration Introduction What is admiration? ; Kinds of admiration Haidt on the psychology or admiration - Trusting admiration Painful admiration and resentment of the admirable Exemplars Where are the exemplars? ; Three ways to observe exemplars Leopold Socha and the holocaust rescuers Jean Vanier and the L'Arche communities Confucius and exemplars of wisdom Conclusion: the hero, the saint, and the sage Virtue The primary moral terms Defining value terms What is a virtue? ; Discovering the virtues in exemplars Emulation Introduction: imitation and emulation How can emulation produce virtue? ; Moral reasons Emulation and autonomy Conclusion A good life Introduction The desirability and admirability of lives The grounding problem Why be moral? ; The varieties of desirable lives What values can we learn from exemplars? Right, wrong, and the division of moral linguistic labor The principle of the division of linguistic labor The division of moral linguistic labor The social importance of deontic terms Wrong and duty A right act Practical advantages of the exemplarist definitions Exemplarist semantics and meta-ethics Introduction Moral terms and the necessary a posteriori Moral realism without necessity Conclusion: what kind of theory is exemplarism?

In this book Linda Zagzebski presents an original moral theory based on direct reference to exemplars of goodness, modeled on the Putnam-Kripke theory which revolutionized semantics in the seventies. In Exemplarist Moral Theory, exemplars are identified through the emotion of admiration, which Zagzebski argues is both a motivating emotion and an emotion whose cognitive content permits the mapping of the moral domain around the features of exemplars. Using examples of heroes, saints, and sages, Zagzebski shows how narratives of exemplars and empirical work on the most admirable persons can be incorporated into the theory for both the theoretical purpose of generating a comprehensive theory, and the practical purpose of moral education and self-improvement. All basic moral terms, including "good person," "virtue," "good life," "right act," and "wrong act" are defined by the motives, ends, acts, or judgments of exemplars, or persons like that. The theory also generates an account of moral learning through emulation of exemplars, and Zagzebski defends a principle of the division of moral linguistic labor, which gives certain groups of people in a linguistic community special functions in identifying the extension or moral terms, spreading the stereotype associated with the term through the community, or providing the reasoning supporting judgments using those terms. The theory is therefore semantically externalist in that the meaning of moral terms is determined by features of the world outside the mind of the user, including features of exemplars and features of the social linguistic network linking users of the terms to exemplars. The book ends with suggestions about versions of the theory that are forms of moral realism, including a version that supports the existence of necessary a posteriori truths in ethics.

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Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski is George Lynn Cross Research Professor, and Kingfisher College Chair of the Philosophy of Religion and Ethics at the University of Oklahoma. She is the author of Epistemic Authority (2012).