Positive Morality and Critical Morality

Moral beliefs and attitudes may vary to great extent across different societies. Even within the same society, the prevailing moral beliefs and attitudes may vary throughout the history of this society. The moral beliefs and attitudes that prevail in a given society, at a given time, constitute the...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Araujo, Marcelo de
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:Brasil
Institución:Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS)
Repositorio:Veritas (Porto Alegre. Online)
Idioma:portugués
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br:article/19306
Acceso en línea:https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/veritas/article/view/19306
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:critical morality. positive morality. David Hume. contractarianism. reflective equilibrium.
Moralidade crítica. Moralidade positiva. David Hume. Contratualismo. Equilíbrio reflexivo.
Descripción
Sumario:Moral beliefs and attitudes may vary to great extent across different societies. Even within the same society, the prevailing moral beliefs and attitudes may vary throughout the history of this society. The moral beliefs and attitudes that prevail in a given society, at a given time, constitute the “positive morality” of this society. But can we morally assess the “positive morality”? In this paper I present reasons so as to give this question an affirmative answer. I argue that the moral assessment of the “positive morality” must resort to the general principles of “critical morality”. The conception of “critical morality” that I defend in this paper resumes some aspects of David Hume’s moral philosophy. In the last section of this paper I also argue that formative works of art, such as novels, feature films, and documentary films may participate in the process of rational deliberation required by “critical morality”.