Overview

The claim that there are objective ethical truths has attracted its share of doubters. Many have thought that such truths would require an extra-ethical foundation or vindication--in metaphysics, or the philosophy of language, or epistemology--and have worried that no such thing is available. Pragmatist Quietism argues that, on the contrary, there are objective ethical truths, and that these neither require nor admit of a foundation or vindication from outside of ethics. Recognizing that the idea of an ethical realm untethered from inquiry into reality, meaning, and knowledge may strike us as mysterious, this book offers a comprehensive meta-ethical worldview within which this jarring proposal may be ensconced. The key moves are, first, the assimilation of normative-ethical inquiry to the sorts of debates that many have labelled 'merely verbal' or 'non-substantive', and second, the adoption of pragmatism--the approach to inquiry and explanation on which we endeavour to guide our thinking by considerations of value, rather than aiming to correctly represent the world.

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9780192856500

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Sepielli circumvents long-standing debates about whether objective ethical truths can be proven. Arguments for the existence of such truths, Sepielli explains, have often relied on external branches of philosophy, such as metaphysics or semantics. To demonstrate how objective ethical truths can be found, Sepielli adopts a quietist lens, which asks ethical questions of only fundamental significance, and proposes a pragmatist framework, which weighs value over other considerations. -- Yale Law Review

His book is the best defence of quietism that I have seen. * Dr Wouter Floris Kalf, Leiden University *

Sepielli circumvents long-standing debates about whether objective ethical truths can be proven. Arguments for the existence of such truths, Sepielli explains, have often relied on external branches of philosophy, such as metaphysics or semantics. To demonstrate how objective ethical truths can be found, Sepielli adopts a quietist lens, which asks ethical questions of only fundamental significance,and proposes a pragmatist framework, which weighs value over other considerations. * Yale Law Review *

Author Information

Andrew Sepielli is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He has published work on ethics, meta-ethics, pragmatism, and the philosophy of law.

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