On Being Morally Authoritative

Abstract

In thinking about morality, if we do it as more than a kind of intellectual exercise, we are doing it to try to make sense of our own tangled lives, to orient ourselves in the world and to come to have some understanding of what a decent social order would look like. The philosophical study of morality has a significant underlying rationale just to the extent that it is importantly instrumental in that task. Its supreme goal is to articulate in some tolerably systematic form a conception of the moral order of things which will be authoritative and survive the critical scrutiny of reflective men. The rub is that there is a widespread conviction that this is an impossible enterprise, that this is a task that philosophy cannot meet. And indeed, some will feel, it is something which isn't even within its purview. The conviction is widespread that the very notion of such an authoritative basis for moral claims is a Holmesless Watson. We indeed have tangled lives and we would like to orient ourselves in the world and, given the gross injustice and absurdity of much that goes on around us, we would very much like to attain such a rational and authoritative overview of moral phenomena. But 'likes will make fine pets of us'-such a hankering for such an overview is, we suspect, wishful thinking. What would it be like to have an authoritative overview in the domain of morality? Well, some philosopher might have a much better account of moral notions than other people-including many philosophers. His representation of how moral notions hang together might indeed be authoritative-be much more perspicuous than that of others. But it is crucial to note that it is in the display of moral concepts where his account can perhaps be authoritative. But, by contrast, the idea of it being authoritative vis-a-vis the truth of moral claims or the soundness of moral arguments is not a pellucid one. In virtue of what would a philosopher's account here be authoritative and what are the marks of an authoritative overview? We can speak without any conceptual puzzlement of an authoritative statement on the value, healthwise, of regular jogging. Certain people can be authorities here and can speak authoritatively on such a question. A group of people, none of them M.D.s and none of them particularly knowledgeable about human biology or health research, might get into a dispute about the wisdom of jogging. Some might maintain it was very good for one's health. It helps one get rid of excess fat and it is good for the lungs and heart. Others might respond that people who have lived a sedentary life and who have considerable cholesterol accumulation