Circular Definitions of ‘Good’ and the Good of Circular Definitions
(2024) In Ethical Theory and Moral Practice- Abstract
- I defend the view that circular definitions can be useful and illuminating by focusing on the fitting-attitudes analysis of value. This definition states that an item has value if and only if it is a fitting target of attitudes. Good items are the fitting targets of positive attitudes, and bad items are the fitting targets of negative ones. I shall argue that a circular version of this definition, defended by Rabinowicz and Rønnow-Rasmussen (2006), is preferable to its non-circular counterpart and upholds reasonable standards of acceptability. The standards I will be discussing come from Humberstone (1997), who claims that definitions cannot be informative as long as they are inferentially circular.
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https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/3fd3d798-b4e1-42a9-88f0-792f20787e54
- author
- Garcia, Andrés LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- in
- Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
- publisher
- Springer
- ISSN
- 1386-2820
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10677-024-10439-y
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 3fd3d798-b4e1-42a9-88f0-792f20787e54
- date added to LUP
- 2024-03-06 13:58:46
- date last changed
- 2024-04-10 12:42:45
@article{3fd3d798-b4e1-42a9-88f0-792f20787e54, abstract = {{I defend the view that circular definitions can be useful and illuminating by focusing on the fitting-attitudes analysis of value. This definition states that an item has value if and only if it is a fitting target of attitudes. Good items are the fitting targets of positive attitudes, and bad items are the fitting targets of negative ones. I shall argue that a circular version of this definition, defended by Rabinowicz and Rønnow-Rasmussen (2006), is preferable to its non-circular counterpart and upholds reasonable standards of acceptability. The standards I will be discussing come from Humberstone (1997), who claims that definitions cannot be informative as long as they are inferentially circular.}}, author = {{Garcia, Andrés}}, issn = {{1386-2820}}, language = {{eng}}, publisher = {{Springer}}, series = {{Ethical Theory and Moral Practice}}, title = {{Circular Definitions of ‘Good’ and the Good of Circular Definitions}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10677-024-10439-y}}, doi = {{10.1007/s10677-024-10439-y}}, year = {{2024}}, }