Volume 1, Issue Part 1, 2007
Selected Essays from Asia Part 1
Holenstein Elmar
Pages 133-149
Natural Ethics
Legitimate Naturalism in Ethics
It is no accident that the anti-naturalistic objections to an inference from is to ought emerged in the modern era. They presuppose an extremely lean ontology. They presuppose that nothing is necessarily what it is, and accordingly that everything that occurs in sequence is similarly contingent in this sequence. In particular, they presuppose that there is no natural teleology. The objections to the foundation of the ethically good in happiness, pleasure, utility, conduciveness to life, harmony with nature, and the like are similarly guided by predilection for simple concepts. An autonomous value independent of natural desires is presupposed.