Practical Ethics Given Moral Uncertainty

Abstract

Abstract Some philosophers have argued that moral uncertainty has striking implications for issues in practical ethics such as abortion and vegetarianism. In this chapter, we show that the prima facie implications of moral uncertainty for issues in practical ethics are far more wide-ranging than has been noted in the literature so far. We argue for this on two grounds: first, because of interaction effects between moral issues; and, second, because of the variety of different possible intertheoretic comparisons that one can reasonably endorse. Before drawing conclusions from moral uncertainty-based arguments, one first has to do the difficult job of figuring out what one’s credences in different moral viewpoints are or ought to be.