Review from previous edition Terence Cuneo, someone already identified by those who have been paying attention as a young moral philosopher to watch, has written a splendid book...an important and engaging contribution to the metaethical literature.

James Lenman, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

The Normative Web is an important book, if for no other reason than it does something that is unfortunately all too rare in contemporary metaethics: it presents a very promising argument in favour of moral realism.

Daniel Star, Mind

Antirealist views about morality claim that moral facts or truths do not exist. Does this imply that other types of normative facts, such as epistemic facts, do not exist? The Normative Web develops a positive answer to this question. Terence Cuneo argues that moral and epistemic facts are sufficiently similar so that, if moral facts do not exist, then epistemic facts do not exist. But epistemic facts do exist: to deny their existence would commit us to an extreme version of epistemological scepticism. Therefore, Cuneo concludes, moral facts do exist. And if moral facts exist, then moral realism is true. It is sometimes said that moral realists rarely offer arguments for their position, settling instead for mere defenses of a view they find intuitively plausible. By contrast, The Normative Web provides not merely a defense of robust realism in ethics, but a positive argument for this position. In so doing, it engages with a range of antirealist positions in epistemology such as error theories, expressivist views, and reductionist views of epistemic reasons. These positions, Cuneo claims, come at a prohibitively high theoretical cost. Given this cost, it follows that realism about both epistemic and moral facts is a position that we should find highly attractive.
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Terence Cuneo presents a compelling defence of robust realism in ethics. In so doing, he engages with a range of antirealist positions in epistemology such as error theories, expressivist views, and reductionist views of epistemic reasons. The Normative Web is a significant and original contribution to contemporary analytical metaethics.
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Introduction ; 1. Moral Realism of a Paradigmatic Sort ; 2. Defending the Parallel ; 3. The Parity Premise ; 4. Epistemic Nihilism ; 5. Epistemic Expressivism: Traditional Views ; 6. Epistemic Expressivism: Nontraditional Views ; 7. Epistemic Reductionism ; 8. Three Objections to the Core Argument ; Bibliography
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`Review from previous edition Terence Cuneo, someone already identified by those who have been paying attention as a young moral philosopher to watch, has written a splendid book...an important and engaging contribution to the metaethical literature. ' James Lenman, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews `The Normative Web is an important book, if for no other reason than it does something that is unfortunately all too rare in contemporary metaethics: it presents a very promising argument in favour of moral realism.' Daniel Star, Mind
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Original contribution to key debate in metaethics Highlights the links between ethics and epistemology Excellent critical guide to the philosophical literature
Terence Cuneo is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Vermont
Original contribution to key debate in metaethics Highlights the links between ethics and epistemology Excellent critical guide to the philosophical literature

Product details

ISBN
9780199581382
Published
2010
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Weight
426 gr
Height
234 mm
Width
156 mm
Thickness
17 mm
Age
P, 06
Language
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Number of pages
272

Author

Biographical note

Terence Cuneo is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Vermont