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Document Details : Title: Proximity and Particularism Author(s): BURMS, Arnold Journal: Ethical Perspectives Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Date: October 1996 Pages: 157-160 DOI: 10.2143/EP.3.3.563035 Abstract : Some moral philosophers view conventional morality as an instrument that has a certain function to fulfill, and that we can in principle correct or adjust on the basis of an understanding of what it is that we allow ourselves to be guided when we are motivated by something moral. We identify this moral motivation with something that us, at first sight, transparent and unproblematic., viz. with some sort of altruism. the willingness to be concerned with the happiness, welfare and interests of others. On the other han, we are also familiar with the idea that traditional or conventional morality is a culturally dependent product of historical processes which have created in us certain beliefs and patterns of feeling and response. The moral judgments that we are inclined to make on the basis of unexamined intuitions owe their existence and appeal, at least partially, to a contingent cultural and historical context. |
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