Introduction—or What Does Moral Philosophy Know about Morality?

Abstract

Hämäläinen introduces the idea of descriptive ethics as a topic unduly neglected by contemporary philosophers. She argues, first, that philosophical ethics cannot be pursued in meaningful ways without substantial descriptive or comparative work, which often benefits from other sciences as well as the arts. Second, she argues that the main reason why the projects of descriptive ethics are left to others is that there is in today’s philosophical ethics too little understanding of the philosophical import of descriptive work and the philosophical hazards involved in such work.