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Exploring Intuitions on Moral Twin Earth: A Reply to Sonderholm
Author(s) -
Horgan Terry,
Timmons Mark
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
theoria
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.34
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1755-2567
pISSN - 0040-5825
DOI - 10.1111/theo.12072
Subject(s) - argument (complex analysis) , epistemology , scrutiny , philosophy , section (typography) , semantics (computer science) , psychology , computer science , theology , biochemistry , chemistry , programming language , operating system
In his 2013 T heoria article, “Unreliable Intuitions: A New Reply to the Moral Twin‐Earth Argument,” J orn S onderholm attempts to undermine our moral twin earth ( MTE ) argument against R ichard B oyd's moral semantics by debunking the semantic intuitions that are prompted by reflection on the thought experiment featured in the MTE argument. We divide our reply into three main sections. In section 1, we briefly review B oyd's moral semantics and our MTE argument against this view. In section 2, we set forth what we take to be Sonderholm's master debunking argument, along with his proposed Boydian explanation of the semantic intuitions he seeks to debunk. Then in section 3, we mount our defence of the semantic intuitions under scrutiny, arguing on abductive grounds that, contrary to Sonderholm, the semantic intuitions generated by reflection on MTE scenarios are to be trusted in evaluating the plausibility of B oydian moral semantics. Section 4 is our summary and conclusion.