No Morality, No Self: Anscombe's Radical Skepticism

by James Doyle

Overview

Frequently cited and just as often disputed, Elizabeth Anscombe’s “Modern Moral Philosophy” (1958) and “The First Person” (1975) are touchstones of twentieth-century analytic philosophy. Though the arguments Anscombe advances in these papers are familiar to philosophers, their significance remains widely misunderstood, says James Doyle.

No Morality, No Self offers a fresh interpretation of Anscombe’s still-controversial theses about ethical reasoning and individual identity, specifically, her argument that the term “moral” (as it occurs in such contexts as “moral obligation”) is literally meaningless, and that “I” does not refer to some special entity called a “self”—a pair of claims that philosophers have responded to with deep skepticism. However unsettling Anscombe’s conclusions may be, Doyle shows the underlying seriousness of the British philosopher’s reasoning, exposing with clarity and concision how the counterarguments of Anscombe’s detractors are based on a flawed or incomplete understanding of her ideas.

Doyle zeroes in on the central conundrum Anscombe posed to the referentialist school: namely, that it is impossible to give a noncircular explanation of how “I” refers to the person who utters it. He shows where the refutations of philosophers including Lucy O’Brien, Gareth Evans, and Ian Rumfitt fall short, and throws light on why “I” developed features that make it look as if it functions as a referring expression. Reconciling seemingly incompatible points of view, Doyle argues that “I” does refer to a self, but not in a way anyone suspected—a surprising conclusion that is entirely à propos of Anscombe’s provocative thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674976504
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	04/02/2018
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 17.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

James Doyle is Lecturer in Philosophy at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Part 1 No Morality: "Modern Moral Philosophy" (1958)

1 Virtue Ethics, Eudaimonism, and the Greeks 3

2 The Invention of "Morality" and the Possibility of Consequentialism 24

3 The Misguided Project of Vindicating Morality 31

4 The Futility of Seeking the Extension of a Word with No Intension 52

5 What's Really Wrong with the Vocabulary of Morality? 67

6 Assessing "Modern Moral Philosophy" 84

Part 2 No Self: "The First Person" (1975)

7 The Circularity Problem for Accounts of "I" as a Device of Self-Reference 95

8 Is the Fundamental Reference Rule for "I" the Key to Explaining First-Person Self-Reference? 102

9 Rumfitt's Solution to the Circularity Problem 118

10 Can We Make Sense of a Nonreferential Account of "I"? 138

11 Strategies for Saving "I" as a Singular Term: Domesticating FP and Deflating Reference 151

Epilogue: The Anti-Cartesian Basis of Anscombe's Skepticism 177

Appendix A Aquinas and Natural Law 181

Appendix B Stoic Ethics: A Law Conception without Commandments? 191

Notes 199

References 223

Acknowledgments 231

Index 233

Editorial Reviews

Timely and significant…[A] meticulous examination of Anscombe’s work.

Times Literary Supplement - Constantine Sandis

No Morality, No Self: Anscombe’s Radical Skepticism is an absolutely remarkable achievement. James Doyle shows that, when properly understood, Elizabeth Anscombe presents a major challenge to contemporary moral philosophy. This book will bring Anscombe’s thought to the forefront of ethical theory.

Sergio Tenenbaum

James Doyle brings out how radical and philosophically significant are Elizabeth Anscombe’s ideas, in his discussions of two of Anscombe’s best-known theses: that the term ‘moral’ as it occurs in such contexts as ‘moral obligation’ is a word of merely mesmeric force, and that ‘I’ is not an expression that refers to something. Critics of these two theses must now think carefully and take stock in light of Doyle’s arguments. This book is a major contribution to Anscombe studies.

Roger Teichmann