tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post8927914448196865466..comments2024-03-28T08:57:53.180+00:00Comments on Darwinian Conservatism by Larry Arnhart: Lewis, Aristotle, and Practical ReasonLarry Arnharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-54888448826119350572010-08-28T20:32:03.935+01:002010-08-28T20:32:03.935+01:00I think Thomas Aquinas was right to interpret Aris...I think Thomas Aquinas was right to interpret Aristotle as teaching that "the good is the desirable." But I guess we'll have to reject this as no longer philosophically fashionable.<br /><br />To decide this, we would have to look carefully at what Aristotle says in his biologial psychology about "desire" (orexis) as permeating the soul, so that movement is impossible without desire.<br /><br />To decide what is simply true, we would have to look at empirical studies of moral psychology, including neuroscience, to see if pure reason without desire or emotion can move us to moral judgment, as Kant argues, or whether pure reason by itself fails to move us.<br /><br />In particular, I have in mind some of the research surveyed by people like Antonio Damasio and Jonathan Haidt--subjects of some of my blog posts.<br /><br />My impression of this research is that it confirms Aristotle's claim that "reason by itself moves nothing."Larry Arnharthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-3316740804952382072010-08-23T18:23:41.895+01:002010-08-23T18:23:41.895+01:00Aristotle was not a Humean about reason and desire...Aristotle was not a Humean about reason and desire. He does not, for instance, believe that reason's role is limited to "guiding" non-rational desires (there have been some Humean readings of Aristotle, but no serious scholars have defended them for more than 30 years). Have a look at James Murphy's 'Practical Reason and Moral Psychology in Aristotle and Kant', Social Philosophy & Policy 18.2, or Fred Miller's 'Aristotelian Autonomy', in Aristide Tessitore's Aristotle and Modern Politics. <br /><br />Lewis would reject your version of 'Darwinian conservatism' because it is a subjectivist theory of the good. The good, on your view, is good *because* we desire it. Quite apart from whether or not that's true, it's not Aristotelian and it's precisely the sort of thing that Lewis laments in the first essay of AoM.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com