2026/01/01 by Marshall Bierson
Arts and Humanities · #Philosophical Ethics and Theory #Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics #Theology and Philosophy of Evil
paper · doi:10.5840/jphil2026123321
In this paper I defend the ancient thesis that agents always act under the guise of the good. I do so by arguing that the role that goodness plays in action is isomorphic to the role that truth plays in belief. In particular, I argue that the guise of the good thesis allows us to: (i) fix the topic of ethical and metaethical disagreement just as the aim of belief allows us to fix the topic of alethiological disagreements, (ii) explain the thinness of thin moral concepts in parallel to the thinness of concepts like truth, (iii) develop an account of moral testimony that parallels the best non-reductive accounts of theoretical testimony, and (iv) explains why we are to our values changing over time in much the same way that we are open to our theoretical premises changing over time.