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Quote by 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.”

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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“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

“If we decide rightly what to do, or use a correct procedure for making such decisions, that has to be because the decisions or the procedure rest on good reasons, and these reasons consist in the apprehension of truths about what we ought to do. Because these truths must constitute reasons for our decisions, and because in the rational order, reasons must always precede the decisions based on them, the truth conditions of claims about what we ought to cannot be reduced to, or constructed out of, decisions about what to do, or procedures for making such decisions.”

Ifs Reason Use Order Decision Conditions Ought Claims Rational Procedures Apprehension

Author:Allen W. Wood

“Kantian ethical theory distinguishes three levels: First, that of a fundamental principle (the categorical imperative, formulated in three main ways in Kant's Groundwork); second, a set of duties, not deduced from but derived from this principle, by way of its interpretation or specification, its application to the general conditions of human life - which Kant does in the Doctrine of virtue, the second main part of the Metaphysics of Morals; and then finally an act of judgment, through which these duties are applied to particular cases.”

“Kant thinks of judgment as a special faculty or talent of the mind, not reducible to discursive reasoning but cultivated through experience and practice.”

Thinking Mind Practice Special Talent Judgment Reasoning Faculty

Author:Allen W. Wood

“Kant's system of duties constitutes a Doctrine of Virtue because the duties also indicate what kinds of attitudes, dispositions and feelings are morally virtuous or vicious.”

Kind Feelings Attitude Virtue Duty Doctrine Virtuous Disposition Vicious

Author:Allen W. Wood

“Kant's description of most ethical duties reads more like a description of moral virtues and vices. Once we see this, we see that Kantian ethics is indeed a kind of virtue ethics, and that it does not "divide the heart from the head" (to anticipate one of your later questions) but instead recognizes the deep truth that reason and emotion are not opposites.”

Heart Kind Doe Reason Emotion Moral Virtue Duty Ethics Opposites Vices Description Ethical Divides Anticipate Moral Virtues Reason And Emotion

Author:Allen W. Wood