Commonsense morality and contact with value

Journal article

Lovett, Adam and Riedener, Stefan. (2024). Commonsense morality and contact with value. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 109(1), pp. 410-430. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.13044
AuthorsLovett, Adam and Riedener, Stefan
Abstract

There seem to be many kinds of moral duties. We should keep our promises; we should pay our debts of gratitude; we should compensate those we've wronged; we should avoid doing or intending harm; we should help those in need. These constitute, some worry, an unconnected heap of duties: the realm of commonsense morality is a disorganized mess. In this paper, we outline a strategy for unifying commonsense moral duties. We argue that they can be understood in terms of contact with value. You are in contact with a value when you are manifest in it or when it is manifest in you. You have reason to get in contact with the good and avoid contact with evil. And when you're in contact with a value, the weight of the reasons it grounds are amplified for you. These ideas, we argue, can bring order to the chaos of commonsense morality.

Keywordscompensation; doing and allowing; gratitude; intending and foreseeing; promises
Year2024
JournalPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research
Journal citation109 (1), pp. 410-430
PublisherWiley Periodicals LLC
ISSN0031-8205
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.13044
Scopus EID2-s2.0-85183901867
Open accessPublished as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online29 Jan 2024
Publication process dates
Accepted23 Dec 2023
Deposited21 Jan 2025
Additional information

© 2024 The Authors.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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