more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Amoralists make moral judgements without being motivated accordingly, and without suffering any sort of practical irrationality either; the practicality requirement of moral judgement is thus false.
Gist of Idea
A person could make a moral judgement without being in any way motivated by it
Source
Michael Smith (The Moral Problem [1994], 3.3)
Book Ref
Smith,Michael: 'The Moral Problem' [Blackwell 1994], p.67
A Reaction
It is hard to imagine an immoralist with this nihilistic attitude bothering to make any moral judgements at all. Why would someone indifferent to art make aesthetic judgements? What could a 'judgement of rightness' mean to an amoralist?
7358 | All men prefer outward appearance to true excellence [Kongzi (Confucius)] |
12294 | Good and evil are the same thing [Heraclitus, by Aristotle] |
3558 | Only the Cyrenaics reject the idea of a final moral end [Aristippus elder, by Annas] |
6040 | There is no universal goal to human life [Aenesidemus, by Photius] |
20234 | Morality prevents us from developing better customs [Nietzsche] |
3793 | We must question the very value of moral values [Nietzsche] |
23731 | 'Externalists' say moral judgements are not reasons, and maybe not even motives [Smith,M] |
23732 | A person could make a moral judgement without being in any way motivated by it [Smith,M] |