Middle Theory and Moral Theory

Abstract

'Frederick L. Will calls this mutant-producing capacity of problematic subsumption. For a general discussion of this phenomenon in many areas of reasoning see his Beyond Deduction: Ampliative Aspects of Philosophical Reflection (New York and London: Routledge, 1988), especially Chap. 5. John Dewey described this form of deliberation in Human Nature and Conduct (New York: Holt, 1922), Chapter 16. An example of such a resolution of a conflict of moral considerations is developed in my Moral Relevance and Moral Conflict (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1988), Chap. 3. 2W.D. Ross, The Right and the Good (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1930), Chap. 2. 31n The Methods of Ethics, 7th ed. (London: Macmillan, 1907), Henry Sidgwick articulated this conception of moral theorizing very clearly and explicitly, and the conception is currently very influential. At crucial points something like this view appears to be influencing such moral philosophers as Hume, Kant, and J.S. Mill.