Idealization in ethics outlining a formal moral metatheory

Martti Kuokkanen

Matti Häyry

pp. 21-35

in: Axiomathes 11, 2000.

Abstract

In this paper we shall show that structuralist constraints applied to moral idealizations, have applications in critical ethical argumentation. Moreover, we developed some systematic concepts which may be used to evaluate the relevance and adequacy of descriptions of moral problems relative to given idealizing moral perspectives. Finally, it is shown that any two moral perspectives are comparable via the Kemeny-Snell measure of distance of rankings.