What is Constructivism in Ethics and Metaethics?

Abstract

Abstract Most agree that when it comes to so‐called ‘first‐order’ normative ethics and political philosophy, constructivist views are a powerful family of positions. When it comes to metaethics, however, there is serious disagreement about what, if anything, constructivism has to contribute. In this paper I argue that constructivist views in ethics include not just a family of substantive normative positions, but also a distinct and highly attractive metaethical view. I argue that the widely accepted ‘proceduralist characterization’ of constructivism in ethics is inadequate, and I propose what I call the ‘practical standpoint characterization’ in its place. I then offer a general taxonomy of constructivist positions in ethics. Since constructivism’s standing as a family of substantive normative positions is relatively uncontested, I devote the remainder of the paper to addressing skeptics’ worries about the distinctiveness of constructivism understood as a metaethical view. I compare and contrast constructivism with three other standard metaethical positions with which it is often confused or mistakenly thought to be compatible: realism; naturalist reductions in terms of an ideal response; and expressivism. In discussing the contrast with expressivism, I explain the sense in which, according to the constructivist, the distinction between substantive normative ethics and metaethics breaks down. I conclude by distinguishing between two importantly different debates about the mind‐dependence of value. I argue that a failure to make this distinction is part of what explains why the possibility of constructivism as a metaethical view is often overlooked.

Cite this

Sharon Street (2010). What is Constructivism in Ethics and Metaethics?. Philosophy Compass. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-9991.2009.00280.x

@article{sharon2010what,
  title  = {What is Constructivism in Ethics and Metaethics?},
  author = {Street, Sharon},
  year   = {2010},
  journal = {Philosophy Compass},
  doi    = {10.1111/j.1747-9991.2009.00280.x}
}

Citations in this library

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 355 citations exist upstream.

References

Cited by