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Quote by Allen W. Wood

“It is often difficult to know about one's own era which philosophers in it will be remembered as the most important ones, but I think it is already clear that John Rawls is the greatest moral philosopher of the twentieth century.”

Quote by Allen W. Wood

Author

Allen W. Wood, born in 1942, is a renowned professor in the field of philosophy. He has made significant contributions to ethics and political philosophy, with a rich academic career that spans several decades. Wood's research has influenced scholars worldwide, and his works have provided new insights into moral and political theories. more

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“I think the term "Kantian constructivism" as an oxymoron. Kant was a constructivist about mathematics, but not about ethics.”

Thinking Term Ethics Mathematics Oxymoron Constructivism

Author:Allen W. Wood

“It is probably not a good idea to ask someone to expound a position they do not accept and do not feel they even fully understand.”

Feels Ideas Asks Accepting Position Good Ideas

Author:Allen W. Wood

“As I understand it, Kantian constructivism is partly a position in normative ethics and partly a position in metaethics. In metaethics, it is the position that ethical claims have truth values, but their truth conditions consist not in a set of objective facts to which they correspond, but instead in the outcome of some procedure of deliberation resulting in decisions about what to do.”

Facts Values Decision Conditions Position Ethics Claims Objectives Outcomes Ethical Procedures Deliberation Constructivism

Author:Allen W. Wood

“For the utilitarian, there is a fact of the matter about the good (the general happiness, or whatever conception of the good the utilitarian adopts) and about which actions or moral rules would contribute to maximizing the good. For the rational intuitionist, there are truths about which actions should be done and not done.”

Should Matter Done Facts Action Moral Rational Conception Utilitarian Maximizing

Author:Allen W. Wood

“Our procedures of deliberation are not ways of finding out independent moral truths but instead ways of "constructing" these truths, in the process of deciding what to do.”

Way Process Moral Findings Independent Procedures Deliberation Deciding What To Do

Author:Allen W. Wood

“Being aware of truths about what is good or right or about what we ought to do is not the same as deciding what to do. Nor can the former truths be derived from decisions about what to do, or about procedures for making such decisions, unless these procedures themselves rest in some way on the apprehension of truths about what we ought to do.”

Way Decision Ought Truth Is Former Procedures Apprehension Deciding What To Do

Author:Allen W. Wood

“Our decisions need not be seen as resting on procedures that are merely instrumental in making judgments that are reliably truth-tracking. The procedures might be more directly related than that to truths about what is right or good, or about what we ought to do, or to principles that tell us what is true about these matters. And I have no metaphysical theory about the truth-conditions of such truths, except to say that as objective truths, they must be independent of the attitudes, decisions or actions that they are supposed to justify or for which they are to offer reasons.”

“I think it is clear that what we ought to do has to be independent of our decisions about what to do, and independent of any procedures we might use in making such decisions.”

Thinking Use Might Decision Clear Ought Independent Procedures Might Use

Author:Allen W. Wood

“In any matter of moral importance, our first task, before we plunge ahead and decide what to do, is to figure out what we ought to do.”

Firsts Matter Moral Figures Ought Tasks Importance Plunge

Author:Allen W. Wood

“We can make mistakes about what we ought to do, and these are not the same as making bad decisions about what to do.”

Decision Mistake Ought Making Mistakes Bad Decision

Author:Allen W. Wood