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universalizability

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

    • 0.1 Related:
  • 1 Videos
  • 2 Related Products
    • 2.1 Universalizability: A Study in Morals and Metaphysics (Synthese Library)
    • 2.2 Morality and Universality: Essays on Ethical Universalizability (Theory and Decision Library)
    • 2.3 Contemporary Education's Racist Road to Barbarism: Formerly Titled Education and the Racist Road to Barbarism
    • 2.4 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
    • 2.5 An Applied Perspective on Indian Ethics

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    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

    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

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