MORAL KNOWLEDGE AS THE SOLUTION TO PRACTICAL PROBLEMAS: A COMMENTARY TO CONTRACT & VIRTUE III

Um comentário a “Contrato & Virtudes III”

Abstract

This paper discusses the theory of moral knowledge offered by Coitinho in Contrato & Virtudes III. According to Coitinho, a moral belief is justified and therefore counts as moral knowledge if it is consistent with a coherent set of moral judgments that satisfies three conditions: they exhibit intersubjective convergence, they are reasonable and have the ability to guarantee social stability. In Contrato & Virtudes III, Coitinho argues that we should understand moral knowledge along the lines of virtue epistemology, according to which a belief counts as knowledge when it is the result of a good performance of a cognitive capacity. The process of reflective equilibrium is not conceived, however, as a method for accessing independent moral facts. Its target is not truth, but the solution of practical problems. I argue that we should understand Coitinho's position as follows: the aim of practical reflection (which takes the form of Reflective Equilibrium) is the solution of practical problems and, as such, when the normative judgments resulting from this procedure achieve this aim or target (i.e., when they are good solutions to the practical problem at hand) they count as objective moral knowledge. For Coitinho, therefore, moral knowledge consists of good solutions to practical problems. This article seeks to articulate this thesis and formulate some of the objections it faces.