Torralba, J. M., “On morally neutral actions, and the Relevance of Practical Truth for Action Theory”, en Luke Gormally - David Albert Jones - Roger Teichmann (eds.), The Moral Philosophy of Elizabeth Anscombe, Imprint Academic, Exeter, 2016, pp. 51-74. (Proofs) (original) (raw)

Abstract

My aim in this paper is to show why, properly speaking, there are no morally neutral actions and, thus, why action theory is an ethical discipline. I explore how G. E. M. Anscombe appropriated the Aristotelian notion of practical truth (“truth in agreement with right desire”) and the consequences it had for her understanding of the relationship between action theory and ethics or, in other words, the moral character of human action. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first section I consider the possibility of practical truth. Practical truth is possible if, and only if, the conclusion of the practical syllogism is an action (and not a proposition about an action). Here I offer two reasons for that thesis: (1.1.) the practical syllogism proper must conclude in an action, and (1.2) practical knowledge is a constitutive component of the action. The second section is devoted to the necessity of practical truth for action theory. Here I argue that practical truth is a necessary notion because all actions have a truth-value or, what I will call, a goodness-value (are either good or bad). In order to show this the following topics are examined: (2.1.) in which sense Anscombe claims that practical reasoning has no moral content, (2.2.) the role of the notion of “under the guise of the good” in practical reasoning, (2.3.) why any piece of practical reasoning aims at good action, (2.4.) the parallelism between validity/soundness of a syllogism and “truth in agreement with desire”/“truth in agreement with right desire”, (2.5.) how to determine the truth of the first premise, i.e. the goodness of the desire.

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