Moral (and ethical) realism

ABSTRACT

This article advocates a naturalist and realist ethics of solidarity. Specifically, it argues that human needs should be met; and that they should be met in harmony with the environment. Realism should include respect for existing cultures and the morals presently being practiced – with reasonable exceptions. Dignity must come in a form understood and appreciated by the person whose dignity is being respected. It is also argued that naturalist ethics are needed to combat liberal ethics, not least because the latter supports today’s inflexible and dysfunctional institutions. In arguing for these positions, reference is made to the naturalist realist ethics of Georges Canguilhem, C.H. Waddington, John Dewey and David Sloan Wilson, all of whom embed the social order in the natural order.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethics
• moral realism
• Roy Bhaskar
• Georges Canguilhem
• John Dewey
• biology of morals
• Kant

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Howard Richards did undergraduate work at Yale, where his teachers included Richard Rorty, Richard J. Bernstein and Richard Schmitt. Next, he earned a law degree at Stanford, followed by a doctorate in philosophy from the University of California and a doctorate in educational planning with a specialty in applied psychology and moral development from the University of Toronto. He spent a year at Oxford where his tutors were Alfred Yates, Rom Harré and A.J. Ayer. He also took Lawrence Kohlberg’s summer school course at Harvard, where he was in the ‘advanced’ discussion group with Carol Gilligan, Anne Colby and others. As a practising attorney he specialized in bankruptcy law and volunteered for Cesar Chavez’s National Farm Worker’s Association. He is currently Research Professor of Philosophy at Earlham College and a part time lecturer in management science at the University of Santiago and the University of Cape Town.