Parsimony and the Argument from Queerness

Res Philosophica 91 (4):609-627 (2014)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In his recent book Error Theory: History, Critique, Defence, Jonas Olson attempts to revive the argument from queerness originally made famous by J.L. Mackie. In this paper, we do three things. First, we eliminate four untenable formulations of the argument. Second, we argue that the most plausible formulation is one that depends crucially upon considerations of parsimony. Finally, we evaluate this formulation of the argument. We conclude that it is unproblematic for proponents of moral non-naturalism—the target of the argument from queerness.

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The vanishing argument from queerness.Lee Shepski - 2008 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 86 (3):371 – 387.
Mackie's Error Theory and Reasons.Douglas Farland - 2005 - South African Journal of Philosophy 24 (1):1-13.
Parsimony Arguments in Science and Philosophy—A Test Case for Naturalism P.Elliott Sober - 2009 - Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 83 (2):117 - 155.
Ideological parsimony.Sam Cowling - 2013 - Synthese 190 (17):3889-3908.
When is parsimony a virtue.Michael Huemer - 2009 - Philosophical Quarterly 59 (235):216-236.
Kuhnian values and cladistic parsimony.Richard Richards - 2002 - Perspectives on Science 10 (1):1-27.
The Argument from Queerness.Hallvard Lillehammer - 2013 - In Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Ethics. Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell.
Moral Knowledge and “The Argument from Queerness”.Gary Atkinson - 1990 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 64 (2):215-232.
Quantitative parsimony.Daniel Nolan - 1997 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48 (3):329-343.
Naturalism and the Buck-Passing Account of Value.Francesco Orsi - 2006 - Philosophical Writings 32 (2):58-77.
Explaining Supervenience.Nick Zagwill - 1997 - Journal of Philosophical Research 22:509-518.

Analytics

Added to PP
2014-11-07

Downloads
2,694 (#2,916)

6 months
283 (#7,950)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Eric Sampson
Purdue University
Justin Morton
University of California, Davis

Citations of this work

Is Irreducible Normativity Impossibly Queer?Teemu Toppinen - 2016 - Journal of Moral Philosophy 13 (4):437-460.
Error Theory in Metaethics.Jonas Olson - 2017 - In Tristram Colin McPherson & David Plunkett (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Metaethics. New York: Routledge. pp. 58-71.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Moral Error Theory: History, Critique, Defence.Jonas Olson - 2014 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The nature of morality: an introduction to ethics.Gilbert Harman - 1977 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Logic of Statistical Inference.Ian Hacking - 1965 - Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong.Fred Feldman & J. L. Mackie - 1979 - Philosophical Review 88 (1):134.

View all 9 references / Add more references