THE VALIDITY OF MORAL THEORIES |
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| Authors: | Virginia Held |
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| Institution: | Virginia Held is professor of philosophy at the City University of New York Graduate School, 33 West 42 Street, New York, New York 10036 and at Hunter College of the City University of New York. |
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| Abstract: | Abstract. We can usefully draw an analogy between ethics and science, despite the significant differences between them. We can then see the ways in which moral theories can indeed be "tested," not by empirical experience but by moral experience. This can be expected to lead to rival moral theories, but in science also we have rival theories. I argue that we should demand more than coherence of our moral theories, as we do of our scientific theories. I try to show how the "testing" of moral theories can be carried out and how this can allow us to accept some moral theories as valid. |
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