Western Philosophy

John McDowell's Critique of Philippa Foot's Creative Naturalism

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD in Ethics, University of Qom, Qom, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Faculty of Theology, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

10.30479/wp.2025.21127.1128

Abstract

In his critique of Philippa Foot's moral naturalism, John McDowell critically examines nature-based ethical approaches. Moral naturalism attempts to explain moral values and principles in terms of characteristics derived from human nature. Inspired by Aristotelian philosophy, Foot believes that moral values are rooted in the natural functioning of living beings and should not be considered in isolation from the natural world. He emphasizes the role of the specific function (organ) of man in the formation of moral values. McDowell, influenced by the Aristotelian moral tradition, also considers the origin of moral values to be rooted in human nature, with the difference that he does not overlook the role of human reason in shaping moral values. McDowell, by distinguishing between primary and secondary nature in humans, believes that moral values are rooted in human secondary nature, not human primary nature, as is implied by Foote's statement. McDowell takes a position between Kantian rationalism and Foote's extreme naturalism.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Anscombe, G. E. M. (1958) “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Philosophy, Vol. 33, No. 124, pp. 1-19.
Broadbent, Paul (2013) McDowell’s Realism, University of Otago.
Dancy, J. (1993) Moral Reasons, Blackwell.
Dancy, Jonathan & Hookway, Christopher (1986) “Two Conceptions of Moral Realism”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol. 6, pp. 167-187 + 189-205.
Davidson, D. (1980) Essays on Actions and Events, Oxford University Press.
Finlay, Stephan (2007) “Four Faces of Moral Realism”, Philosophy Compass, Vol. 2, Issue 6, pp.  820-849.
Fodor, J. A. (1987) Psychosemantics: The Problem of Meaning in the Philosophy of Mind, MIT Press.
Foot, Philippa (2001) Natural Goodness, Oxford University Press.
Geach, P. T. (1956) “Good and Evil”, Analysis, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 33-42. Reprinted in Foot, P. (ed.), Theories of Ethics, Oxford University Press, pp. 64-73.
Hosseini Ghal’eh Bahman, Seyyed Akbar (2004) Moral Realism in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century, Qom: Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute [in Persian].
Hursthouse, Rosalind (1999) On Virtue Ethics, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Lara, Amy (2008) “Virtue Theory and Moral Facts”, Journal of Value Inquiry, Vol. 42, pp. 331-352.
Lutz, Matthew & Lenman, James (2018) “Moral Naturalism”, https://plato.stanford.edu/ entries/naturalism-moral/
McDowell, John (1994) Mind and World, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
McDowell, John (1998) “Two Sorts of Naturalism”, Mind, Valu and Reality, Harvard University Press. 
McDowell, John (2009) “Response to Dreyfus”, Inquiry, Vol. 50, No. 4, pp. 366-370; DOI: 10.1080/00201740701489351.
McNaughton, David (2004) Moral Vision, translated by Hassan Miyandari, Tehran: SAMT Publication [in Persian].
Miller, R. W. (1992) “Moral Realism”, The Encyclopedia of Ethics, ed. by Lawrence C. Becker; New York and London: Garland Publishing.
Miyandari, Hassan (2007) “A Critique of Kant’s Moral Philosophy from the Perspective of McDowell’s Moral Realism”, Nameh-ye Hekmat, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 120-139 [in Persian].
Mollayousefi, Majid & Aflatouni, Hamideh (2012) “Human Flourishing from Philippa Foot’s Perspective, with Reference to Aristotle’s Views”, Philosophical Researches, Issue 9, pp. 161-176 [in Persian].
Mollayousefi, Majid & Sadeghi, Masoud (2010) “Philippa Foot and Neo-Aristotelian Moral Realism”, Ethical Research, Issue 1, pp. 83-102 [in Persian].
Mollayousefi, Majid (2005) “John McDowell and Moral Realism”, Nameh-ye Hekmat, Issue 6, pp. 5-20 [in Persian].
Parfit, Derek (2011) On What Matters, Vol. 2, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thomson, Judith Jarvis (1996) “Moral Objectivity”, Moral Realism and Moral Objectivity, ed. by Gilbert Harman and Judith Jarvis Thomson, Cambridge: Blackwell, pp. 65-154.
Thomson, Judith Jarvis (1997) “The Right and the Good”, Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 94, pp. 273-298.
Thomson, Judith Jarvis (2008) Normativity, Chicago: Open Court.
Thornton, Tim (2018) John McDowell: Mind and World, translated by Mohammad Hossein Khalaj. Tehran: Zendegi-ye Rouzaneh Publications [in Persian].
Vogler, C. (2002) Reasonably Vicious, Harvard University Press.
Western Philosophy
Volume 4, Issue 2 - Serial Number 14
July 2025
Pages 21-42