Philippa Foot

[Philosophy Now]

Philippa Foot has for decades been one of Oxford’s best-known and most original ethicists. Her groundbreaking papers won her worldwide recognition but at the dawn of the new century she has finally published her first full-length book. Editor Rick Lewis asked her about goodness, vice, plants and Nietzsche.

http://philosophynow.org/issues/41/Philippa_Foot

[Impenitent]

nice article, thanks for making it available...

I'd argue that a dry winterbourne in July is defective for the child and his toy boat...

-Imp

[marjoram_blues]

Philippa Foot: I’m explaining a notion that I have called ‘natural goodness’. An admired colleague of mine, Michael Thompson, has said of my work that I believe that vice is a form of natural defect. That’s exactly what I believe, and I want to say that we describe defects in human beings in the same way as we do defects in plants and animals. I once began a lecture by saying that in moral philosophy it’s very important to begin by talking about plants. This surprised some people!

What I believe is that there are a whole set of concepts that apply to living things and only to living things, considered in their own right. These would include, for instance, function, welfare, flourishing, interests, the good of something. And I think that all these concepts are a cluster. They belong together.

Is vice a form of natural defect?

[marjoram_blues]

nice article, thanks for making it available...

I'd argue that a dry winterbourne in July is defective for the child and his toy boat...

-Imp

?

It might be defective but is it morally vicious...
...what does that even mean...?

[Impenitent]

nice article, thanks for making it available...

I'd argue that a dry winterbourne in July is defective for the child and his toy boat...

-Imp

?

It might be defective but is it morally vicious...
...what does that even mean...?

as a third party judge who is outside of any perceived intent, asking the question of the intentionality of said river may or may not be absurd...

the "defectiveness" of the dry stream as regards the ability to sail the toy boat shows the state of affairs

for the child whose desire to sail the toy boat remains unsated, the moral viciousness of the river is understood

-Imp