Wednesday 9/12
Standards of Evaluation
Please note that we have the first of our quizzes today. We'll begin with the quiz, so it is very important that you arrive on time. Plan on 45 minutes or so for the quiz, after which I'll summarize our discussion of moral normative theory and the standards by which we will evaluate such theories.
Readings
Notes
Synopsis
Today we took the first of our quizzes. It seemed to go well, although we'll have to wait for Brianna to go over them to know for sure.
Next today we looked once again at the Standards of Evaluation. It is crucial that you understand what Clarity, Coherence, and Reflective Equilibrium require and the logical basis for them--that is to say, their justification found in elementary concepts in logic (validity and soundness) in conjunction with the nature of theory.
This understanding is especially important as we move into discussing specific moral normative theories. You might find that an initially appealing theory turns out on analysis to fail one or more of the Standards. However appealing, in other words, we might well be driven by analysis to reject the theory. This can be disconcerting. The better you understand the justification for the Standards themselves, the more sensible it will be that some theories merit rejection.