ASEBL Journal – Volume 11 Issue 1, January 2015
6. Based on extensive empirical research from around the world, Jonathan Haidt proposed in
The Righteous Mind the following foundations for all cultural moralities: 1) Care/Harm; 2)
Fairness/Cheating; 3) Liberty/Oppression; 4) Loyalty/Betrayal; 5) Authority/Subversion; 6)
Sanctity/Degradation. Martin Seligman, in Authentic Happiness, based on empirical research
from around the world and throughout history, proposed the following 24 elements in 6 categories of virtue: I. Wisdom: 1) Curiosity, 2) Love of learning, 3) Judgment, 4) Creativity, 5)
Emotional Intelligence, 6) Perspective; II. Courage: 7) Valor, 8) Perseverance, 9) Integrity; III.
Humanity: 10) Kindness, 11) Loving; IV. Justice: 12) Citizenship, 13) Fairness, 14) Leadership; V. Temperance: 15) Self-control, 16) Prudence, 17) Humility; VI. Transcendence: 18)
Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, 19) Gratitude, 20) Hope, 21) Spirituality, 22) Forgiveness, 23) Humor, 24) Zest.
7. The Euthyphro dilemma.
8. Hume, D. (1739) A Treatise of Human Nature, book 3, part 1, section 1.
9. Pidgen, C. (2011) Hume on Is and Ought, Philosophy Now Magazine, Issue 83.
10. Hume, D. (1739) A Treatise of Human Nature, Part 3, Of the will and direct passions, Sect.
3, Of the influencing motives of the will.
11. Curry, O. (2006) p. 234.
12. Putnam, H. (1981) Reason, Truth and History, Cambridge University Press, p. 206.
13. Curry, O. (2006) pp. 238-239.
14. Curry, O. (2006) p. 239.
15. From Curry, O. (2006) p. 236: “A survey of the literature reveals not one but (at least)
eight alleged mistakes that carry the label “the naturalistic fallacy”: 1) Moving from is to ought
(Hume’s fallacy). 2) Moving from facts to values. 3) Identifying good with its object (Moore’s
fallacy). 4) Claiming that good is a natural property. 5) Going “in the direction of evolution.”
6) Assuming that what is natural is good. 7) Assuming that what currently exists ought to exist.
8) Substituting explanation for justification.”
16. Curry, O. (2006) p. 243.
17. Mackie, J. L. (1980) Hume's Moral Theory, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd, p. 6.
18. Harris, S. The Moral Landscape, p. 250, quotes this as from “Dennett p. 468,” but Harris’
reference is sloppy here and does not say which Dennett book he is referring to, though I have
little doubt that Dennett said it.
19. Pigden, C. R. (1991) Naturalism, in Singer, P. (Ed.), A Companion to Ethics, pp. 427-428.
20. Korsgaard, C. M. (1996) The Sources of Normativity, Cambridge University Press, pp. 910.
21. Maslow, A.H. (1943) A theory of human motivation, in Psychological Review, 50(4), pp
370–396. See the Wikipedia entry.
22. Entry for Blind Variation and Selective Retention on Principia Cybernetica. The term
comes from Joseph Campbell who also coined the phrase “evolutionary epistemology” and
noted how BVSR governed the evolution of knowledge in general.
23. From Wikipedia: “A proximate cause is an event, which is closest to, or immediately responsible for causing, some observed result. This exists in contrast to a higher-level ultimate
cause (or distal cause), which is usually thought of as the “real” reason something occurred.
Separating proximate from ultimate causation frequently leads to better understandings of the
events and systems concerned.”
24. Hume, D. (1777) An Enquiry Concerning the Principle of Morals, pp. 244-245.
25. Singer, Peter (1981) The expanding circle: ethics and sociology (1st ed.), book cover description.
26. Singer, Peter (1981) p. 119.
27. Wilson, E.O. (1998) Consilience, Vintage Books paperback edition, p 91. Wilson left off
the field of sociobiology from his list (I’m guessing because he himself controversially named
it and it is not a widely recognized field), but I’ve inserted it in my account to ensure that the
continuum from individual to society to species is complete.
28. The MECE Principle.
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