<サーヴェイ論文>道徳的個別主義を巡る論争 -近年の動向-

Abstract

The position called ‘moral particularism’ was suggested by several writers in 80s and various issues concerning the position have been lively discussed in the literature. In this survey paper, I shall attempt to explicate the main argument for the position and some of other relevant particularist claims. I shall also discuss some implications of the position. The structure of the paper is as follows. In Section 2, I shall present so called ‘the argument from holism’ which is the main argument for particularism. In the latter part of this section, I shall present some controversies over the argument from holism, such as whether the holism of reasons for action is true and whether the holism entails particularism. In Section 3, I shall present some of other controversies concerning particularism which are not on the argument from holism. These controversies are on various issues concerning philosophy of language, moral psychology, normative ethics and moral epistemology which follow from particularism. In Section 4, I shall discuss some implications of particularism. In the end of the paper, I shall indicate how further research on particularism and relevant discussions may flourish in the future. Given many fruitful research projects which may be pursued on the basis of the existing literature on particularism, I shall conclude that the particularism debate are going to remain as one of the central issues in moral philosophy.