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Groundwork for the Mechanics of Morals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2020

Avery Kolers Open the ORCID record for Avery Kolers [Opens in a new window]
Avery Kolers*
Affiliation:
Philosophy Department, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA
*
Email: akolers@louisville.edu
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Abstract

Ethics is a skill set. But what skill set is it? An answer to this question would help make progress for both theory and moral agency. I argue that moral performance may best be understood on the model of athletic performance; both moral and athletic performance are rule-structured unions of efficiency and inefficiency, enabling us to engage in the wholehearted and autonomous pursuit of goals subject to constraints. By understanding how athletics demands embodied performance, we better understand moral demand and wrongdoing: less moral psychology, more moral kinesiology.

Keywords

Ethicsdemandrulesskillsport
Type
Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 50 , Issue 5 , July 2020 , pp. 636 - 651
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Canadian Journal of Philosophy

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