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Ethical Instrumentalism

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Abstract

The present essay offers a sketch of a philosophy of value, what I shall here refer to as ‘ethical instrumentalism.’ My primary aim is to say just what this view involves and what its commitments are. In the course of doing so, I find it necessary to distinguish this view from another with which it shares a common basis and which, in reference to its most influential proponent, I refer to as ‘Humeanism.’ A second, more general, aim is to make plausible the idea that, given the common basis, ethical instrumentalism provides a more compelling picture of the philosophy of value than Humeanism does.

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Correspondence to J. S. Biehl.

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Biehl, J.S. Ethical Instrumentalism. Ethic Theory Moral Prac 8, 353–369 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-005-8834-4

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