Reply to Noddings, Darwall, Wren, and Fullinwider

Abstract

I respond to Noddings with further clarification of the notion of empathy and also argue that previous care ethics has put too much of an exclusive emphasis on relationships. I respond to Darwall by pointing out some implausible implications of his own and Kantian views about respect and by showing how a sentimentalist approach can avoid those difficulties. In my reply to Wren I indicate how a sentimentalist metaethics can be accurate to what we mean by ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ even if Kantians and others would emphatically deny what it says about these terms. And, finally, I argue that Fullinwider’s dismissive remarks on moral theories fail to reckon with what is significant and important about moral theorizing and also point out how a sentimentalist ethics and its view of moral education can, pace Fullinwider, be of some practical use to moral educators.