Pain for the Moral Error Theory? A New Companions-in-Guilt Argument

Australasian Journal of Philosophy 96 (3):474-482 (2017)
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Abstract

The moral error theorist claims that moral discourse is irredeemably in error because it is committed to the existence of properties that do not exist. A common response has been to postulate ‘companions in guilt’—forms of discourse that seem safe from error despite sharing the putatively problematic features of moral discourse. The most developed instance of this pairs moral discourse with epistemic discourse. In this paper, I present a new, prudential, companions-in-guilt argument and argue for its superiority over the epistemic alternative.

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Guy Fletcher
University of Edinburgh

Citations of this work

Prudential reasons and the prudential companions in guilt argument.Jesse Hambly - forthcoming - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy.
The Prudential 'Now What?' Problem.Ethan Moore - forthcoming - Acta Analytica:1-22.
Normative Nihilism.Lewis Williams - 2026 - Philosophy Compass 21 (3).

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References found in this work

Moral Error Theory: History, Critique, Defence.Jonas Olson - 2014 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The Myth of Morality.Richard Joyce - 2001 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Unbelievable Errors: An Error Theory About All Normative Judgments.Bart Streumer - 2017 - Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
Principia Ethica.G. E. Moore - 1903 - Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 13 (3):7-9.

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