Making sense of things: Moral inquiry as hermeneutical inquiry

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 109 (1):117-137 (2023)
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Abstract

We are frequently confronted with moral situations that are unsettling, confusing, disorienting. We try to come to grips with them. When we do so, we engage in a distinctive type of moral inquiry: hermeneutical inquiry. Its aim is to make sense of our situation. What is it to make sense of one's situation? Hermeneutical inquiry is part of our everyday moral experience. Understanding its nature and its place in moral epistemology is important. Yet, I argue, that existing accounts of moral inquiry do not give us the resources to do so. This paper develops a positive account of hermeneutical inquiry. I argue that when we engage in hermeneutical inquiry, we search for an apt perspective on our situation.

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Paulina Sliwa
University of Vienna

Citations of this work

Phenomenal Knowledge, Imagination, and Hermeneutical Injustice.Martina Fürst - 2024 - In Íngrid Vendrell Ferran & Christiana Werner (eds.), Imagination and Experience: Philosophical Explorations. New York, NY: Routledge.
Attentional Discrimination and Victim Testimony.Ella Kate Whiteley - 2024 - Philosophical Psychology (6):1407-1431.
Epistemic Partialism and Taking Our Friends Seriously.Cathy Mason - 2024 - American Philosophical Quarterly 61 (3):233-243.
Blaming the victim.Paulina Sliwa - 2024 - Philosophical Issues 34 (1):150-166.

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References found in this work

Lack of Character: Personality and Moral Behavior.John M. Doris - 2002 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Intelligent Virtue.Julia Annas - 2011 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.

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