Normative Reasoning and Moral Argumentation in Theory and Practice

Ryan Gillespie University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract

Abstract“Morality is relative to culture” is a descriptive claim, but in practice its normative entailment is rarely embraced. It is often claimed that this poses a problem of consistency for relativism as a morally normative theory: either relativists do not act in accordance with their beliefs or they hold different beliefs from what they espouse. This article evaluates a debate between Paul Boghossian and Stanley Fish over relativism, analyzing their arguments on the relationship between theory and practice in ethics and the tenability of moral relativism. I defend two claims: that the truth or falsity of moral relativism has significant bearing on action and that morality is based on a conjunctivity of doxastic and practical discursive commitments. Establishing the conjunctive commitment argument, I make the case that the doxastic and the practical lie at the heart of normative reasoning in general and ethics in particular and discuss the implications of such a view for rhetorical theory and community.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2016-02-22
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.49.1.0049
Open Access
Closed
Topics

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Cites in this index (2)

  1. Philosophy & Rhetoric
  2. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
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