A complex and controversial notion which has been used both to distinguish the moral from the non-moral and to distinguish the moral from the immoral – two jobs which tend to get in each other’s way.
‘What if everyone did that?’ is often a relevant question in moral contexts; but ‘did what exactly?’. The same action can be described in many ways. And what counts as ‘everyone’?
Presumably everyone with certain characteristics or in a certain situation, but which characteristics or situations? As for distinguishing the moral from the non-moral, no doubt if I act in arbitrary ways I cannot claim to be acting on a moral principle – but will I be acting on any other kind of principle either? And what counts as ‘arbitrary’?
These questions of course give only the general flavor of discussions in this area; and though the terms are often confused, one should distinguish the universal (as against particular or individual) from the general (as against specific): ‘Always help the blind’ is universal but specific.
The appeal to universalizability in ethics dates from Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).
Source:
D Locke, ‘The Trivializability of Universalizability’, Philosophical Review (1968)
Table of Contents
- 1 Videos
- 2 Related Products
- 2.1 The Philosophical Review: A Quarterly Journal, vol. LXXVII (77), no. 1 (whole no. 421) (January 1968): How Words Mean Sensations; Trivializability of Universalizability; Conceivability of Mechanism
- 2.2 Contemporary Education's Racist Road to Barbarism: Formerly Titled Education and the Racist Road to Barbarism
- 2.3 Morality and Universality: Essays on Ethical Universalizability (Theory and Decision Library)
- 2.4 Universalizability: A Study in Morals and Metaphysics (Synthese Library)
- 2.5 An Applied Perspective on Indian Ethics
Videos
The Philosophical Review: A Quarterly Journal, vol. LXXVII (77), no. 1 (whole no. 421) (January 1968): How Words Mean Sensations; Trivializability of Universalizability; Conceivability of Mechanism
- Carl Ginet (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 145 Pages - 03/29/1968 (Publication Date) - Faculty of Sage School of Philosophy (Cornell University, Ithaca, New York) (Publisher)
Contemporary Education's Racist Road to Barbarism: Formerly Titled Education and the Racist Road to Barbarism
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Reisman, George (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 13 Pages - 10/31/2014 (Publication Date) - TJS Books (Publisher)
Morality and Universality: Essays on Ethical Universalizability (Theory and Decision Library)
- English (Publication Language)
- 348 Pages - 11/01/2011 (Publication Date) - Springer (Publisher)
Universalizability: A Study in Morals and Metaphysics (Synthese Library)
- Rabinowicz, Wlodzimierz (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 208 Pages - 10/13/2011 (Publication Date) - Springer (Publisher)
An Applied Perspective on Indian Ethics
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Mohapatra, P. K. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 121 Pages - 07/08/2019 (Publication Date) - Springer (Publisher)
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