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Title: Enjoying the Good and the Normative Role of Warrantless Attitudes (co-authored w/ Steve Wall)
Abstract: Mick Jagger purred “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, But I Like It.” What he was saying was that rock isn’t all that important, yet, at least as we hear him, the fact that we like it still matters. We will argue towards trying to vindicate Mick’s thesis.
This paper aims to further the case for a robust role for warrantless attitudes—attitudes not warranted by their object—in grounding value, even if the role of such attitudes is constrained by stance-independent values. There is a long-standing tradition within philosophy going back to The Euthyphro that is skeptical that such attitudes can play a normative role. Some philosophers try to resist any role for attitudes in grounding value. Here we argue against what we see as the more plausible attempt to allow a role for attitudes but aim to limit that role to attitudes that are warranted, as is exemplified in “Enjoying the Good” views.
We attempt to sympathetically develop what seems to us the core thought that tempts many excellent philosophers to such skepticism. We then try to build the best version of Enjoying the Good for the purposes of the skeptic. Finally, we try to show that Enjoying the Good views do not offer a tempting path to vindicating skepticism.