Reassuring Ourselves of the Reality of Ethical Reasons: What McDowell Should Take from Foot’s Ethical Naturalism

摘要

In this paper I argue that John McDowell’s objections to Philipa Foot’s nethical naturalism do not justify a rejection of her views, but only clarifi es what we can ndefensibly take from her position. Moreover, his comments suggest a way in which nFoot’s naturalism may help to secure the realism McDowell defends in his own work. nIn seeing how Foot’s naturalism can reassure us of the reality of ethical reasons, we can nunderstand how McDowell needs something like Foot’s naturalism in order to redeem nhis own realist aspirations for ethics.