PHIL 450A: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS ON HARMAN AND SAYRE-McCORD

Harman, "Moral Nihilism"

1. According to Harman, what is the analogy between testing scientific theories and testing moral theories?

2. According to Harman, what is the disanalogy? [Hint: Think of Ruse's claim that objective morality is redundant.]

3. What are the two senses in which Harman thinks a theory can explain an observation?

4. What does Harman mean by moral nihilism? What is our term for that position?

5. What does Harman mean by functionalism?

6. What does Harman mean by naturalism?

7. What does Harman mean by a "naturalistic reduction of moral facts"?

Sayre-McCord, "Moral Theory and Explanatory Impotence"

Don't worry about Section 2 of Sayre-McCord's article. Harman's version of this argument is easier to follow, so we will ignore Section 2 and go directly from Section 1 to Section 3.

1. What is the Causal Criterion? What is it a criterion for?

2. What does Sayre-McCord mean by the causal theory of knowledge and the causal theory of reference?

3. What is the Explanatory Criterion?

4. What is Sturgeon's test for explanatory irrelevance?

5. What is Sayre-McCord's test for explanatory impotence?

6. What is the point of the analogy to witch explanations?

7. McCord relies on an analogy between the evaluation of explanations and the evaluation of actions? What is the analogy? Why does McCord believe that it supports moral inquiry?

8. What is inference to the Best Justification?