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Articles

Ethics Made Easy: ‘Feel Good, Do The Right Thing’

Roy Turner thinks about being good.

Kwame Anthony Appiah opens his Experiments In Ethics with the engaging claim that “this little book is an attempt to relate the business of philosophical ethics to… the concerns of the ordinary, thoughtful person, trying to live a decent life.” Surprisingly, he immediately goes on to tell us that in developing this thought he has turned to the social sciences, whose relevance to our ordinary lives is “fairly straightforward.” Yet it is far from obvious that philosophy requires the assistance of social science for its traditional project of developing a decent life, and Appiah is silent as to the nature of the relevance he claims. Philosophy, it seems, will, without argument, share the widespread deference paid to the expertise of science, including to social science. With what success remains to be seen.

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