Robert Audi
Biographic Data
| ID | 1029318 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Robert Audi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Robert |
| FAMILY NAME | Audi |
| SIGNATURE | AUDI R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Nebraska–Lincoln |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9192-0256 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 76 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 225 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 75 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The Ontological Commitments of Ethical Intuitionism
Intuitions are sometimes conceived as intellectual perceptions. They share with physical perceptions being direct and, in that way, non‐inferential. Contemporary epistemologists tend to consider all knowledge dependent in some way on perception but not as requiring countenancing abstract objects. We do, however, speak of seeing truths of logic and mathematics, even if we do not view the abstracta they apparently concern as in the causal order. Ho…
Is This God's Country
This book discusses how Christianity as a religion—or any religion—can coexist in harmony with democracy as an American ideal that separates church and state. The notion of a religion is complex and elastic; the notion of democracy is complex and contested. Both notions are described, and both are considered in contemporary America viewed through our founding documents, our ideals of religious liberty and social justice, and our acute day-to-day …
Determinism, deliberation, and responsibility
In appraising human actions, an important consideration is whether they are free. If they are compelled, this may be excusatory; if controlled by someone other than the agent, this may mitigate; and if selfishly motivated, this may invalidate excuses. Moral appraisals of action by non‐philosophers do not normally consider whether it can be free under determinism. Metaphysical inquiry about action, by contrast, seems incomplete if it does not cons…
The Explanatory Roles of Moral Facts and the Case for Moral Realism
The fact that a fan is running can explain why there is a draft. Explanatory power of this kind is generally taken to support realism regarding the facts and properties in question. Mathematical objects and properties, however, unlike fans, are neither in the causal order nor explanatory in the way a fan’s running is. Nonetheless, it is commonly thought that mathematical facts, such as theorems in arithmetic and geometry, play essential roles in …
Religious pluralism and the ethics of healthcare
Democratic societies that separate church and state face major challenges in accommodating religious convictions. This applies especially to determining healthcare policies. Building on our prior work on the demands and limits of religious accommodation in democratic societies, we propose a set of ethical standards that can guide societies in meeting this challenge. In applying and defending these standards, we explore three topics: vaccine resis…
The Phenomenology of Moral Intuition
Are reasons normatively basic
Understanding reasons is essential both for understanding human behavior and for constructing a theory of moral conduct. Reasons have been widely viewed as the most basic elements in normative theory, and moral reasons have been considered the most basic elements in ethics. Arguably, rational acts are those best supported by reasons, and morally right acts are those best supported by moral reasons. There is little doubt, however, that what is goo…
Acting rightly
Philosophical literature in normative ethics has tended to concentrate on (1) what we should do—what acts we should perform—or (2) virtues of character, understood as leading to the right deeds or (3), as most notable in Kant, the importance of motivation appraising agents and actions. All these elements—actions, virtues, and motives—are ethically significant. But there is a dimension of moral responsibility that should be given a place beside ob…
Methodological reflections on Kant’s ethical theory
Religion & Democracy
Much of the world is seeing conflict between people whose views permit basing political actions and lawmaking on religious convictions and people whose democratic values oppose this. Democratic societies are in principle open to the free exercise of religion and, in constitution, they are characteristically pluralistic in both culture and religion. Religions are highly variable in their stance toward government, but many of the world's most popul…
Humanity as Common Ground
Understanding, Self‐Evidence, and Justification
Self‐evidence is plausibly taken to be a status that marks propositions as capable of being justifiedly believed (and known) on the basis of understanding them. This paper explicates and defends that view. The paper shows that the broadly linguistic kind of understanding implied by basic semantic comprehension of a formulation of a self‐evident proposition does not entail being justified in believing that proposition; that the kind of understandi…
O lugar do testemunho na estrutura do conhecimento e da justificação
O objetivo central neste artigo é o de explicar o que é testemunho e como ele produz conhecimento e justificação. Conforme essa concepção, o testemunho é uma importante e habitual fonte de conhecimento e de justificação, bem como um conceito relevante em epistemologia social, comunicação e psicologia da aquisição de crença. Apesar de o testemunho, nessa concepção, não ser considerado uma fonte básica de conhecimento e justificação, é alegado que …
The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
This is the leading, full-scale comprehensive dictionary of philosophical terms and thinkers to appear in English in more than half a century. Written by a team of more than 550 experts and now widely translated, it contains approximately 5,000 entries ranging from short definitions to longer articles. It is designed to facilitate the understanding of philosophy at all levels and in all fields. Key features of this third edition include: • 500 ne…
Means, Ends, and Persons
Kant's injunction that we must treat persons as ends in themselves and never merely as means is plausible but often misunderstood. This book shows how the notions of treating persons as ends in themselves and, by contrast, merely as means, can be anchored outside Kant and clarified in ways that enhance their usefulness in ethical theory and in practical ethics, where they are often felt to have considerable intuitive force
Rationality and religious commitment
Democratic Authority and the Separation of Church and State
Democratic states must protect the liberty of citizens and must accommodate both religious liberty and cultural diversity. This democratic imperative is one reason for the increasing secularity of most modern democracies. Religious citizens, however, commonly see a secular state as unfriendly toward religion. This book articulates principles that enable secular governments to protect liberty in a way that judiciously separates church and state an…
Testimony as a Social Foundation of Knowledge
Testimony is the mainstay of human communication and essential for the spread of knowledge. But testimony may also spread error. Under what conditions does it yield knowledge in the person addressed? Must the recipient trust the attester? And does the attester have to know what is affirmed? A related question is what is required for the recipient to be justified in believing testimony. Is testimony‐based justification acquired in the same way as …
Nationalism, Patriotism, and Cosmopolitanism in an Age of Globalization
Religion and the politics of science
This article examines the permissibility of teaching evolution in the public schools of a religiously diverse society. Science is committed to methodological naturalism, which is a limited epistemological position that is silent on issues of religious importance. The article argues that it is possible to teach evolution under the assumptions of methodological naturalism without violating the principle, of secular rationale or the neutrality princ…
Belief, faith, and acceptance
The ethics of belief
Moral Value and Human Diversity
Robert Audi looks at four previous major attempts to codify ethical behaviour: the virtue ethics of Aristotle, the rule-based ethics of Kant; J.S. Mill's utilitarianism; and the movement known as 'common-sense' ethics associated with W.D. Ross.
Divine Command Morality and the Autonomy of Ethics
This paper formulates a kind of divine command ethical theory intended to comport with two major views: that basic moral principles are necessary truths and that necessary truths are not determined by divine will. The theory is based on the possibility that obligatoriness can be a theological property even if its grounds are such that the content of our obligations has a priori limits. As developed in the paper, the proposed divine command theory…
Intrinsic Value and Meaningful Life
I distinguish various ways in which human life may be thought to be meaningful and present an account of what might be called existential meaningfulness. The account is neutral with respect to both theism and naturalism, but each is addressed in several places and the paper's main points are harmonious with certain versions of both. A number of important criteria for existential meaningfulness are examined, and special emphasis is placed on crite…
Religious Commitment and Secular Reason
Many religious people are alarmed about features of the current age - violence in the media, a pervasive hedonism, a marginalization of religion, and widespread abortion. These concerns influence politics, but just as there should be a separation between church and state, so should there be a balance between religious commitments and secular arguments calling for social reforms. Robert Audi offers a principle of secular rationale, which does not …
The Good in the Right
This book represents the most comprehensive account to date of an important but widely contested approach to ethics--intuitionism, the view that there is a plurality of moral principles, each of which we can know directly. Robert Audi casts intuitionism in a form that provides a major alternative to the more familiar ethical perspectives (utilitarian, Kantian, and Aristotelian). He introduces intuitionism in its historical context and clarifies--…
Intrinsic Value and Meaningful Life
I distinguish various ways in which human life may be thought to be meaningful and present an account of what might be called existential meaningfulness. The account is neutral with respect to both theism and naturalism, but each is addressed in several places and the paper's main points are harmonious with certain versions of both. A number of important criteria for existential meaningfulness are examined, and special emphasis is placed on crite…
Religion in the Public Square
Acting for Reasons
I f we do not know for what reasons a person acts, we do not fully understand that person. If we do not know any reason for which an agent does something, we cannot adequately assess whether, in doing it, that agent is acting rationally. And if Kant is right, unless we know the reason(s) for which an action is performed, we do not know its moral worth. But what is it to act for a reason? Clearly, acting for a reason is closely related to acting i…
Prospects for a Naturalization of Practical Reason
This is an age of naturalization projects. Much epistemological work has been done toward naturalizing theoretical reason. One might view Hume as seeking to naturalize reason in both the theoretical (roughly, epistemological) and the practical realms. I suggest that whatever else underlies the vitality of Hume's instrumentalism - encapsulated in his view that 'reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions' - one incentive is the hope o…
The Structure of Justification
Overview Part I. The Foundationalism-Coherentism Controversy: 1. Psychological foundationalism 2. Axiological foundationalism 3. Foundationalism, epistemic dependence, and defeasibility 4. The foundationalism-coherentism controversy: hardened stereotypes and overlapping theories Part II. Knowledge and Justification: 5. the limits of self-knowledge 6. defeated knowledge, reliability, and justification 7. The causal structure of indirect justificat…
Justification, Truth, and Reliability
There are two quite different strands in the concept of justification, its normative character and its connection with truth. There is a tendency to take one of these as fundamental. That may explain why recent treatments of justification have often been dominated by one or the other of two contrasting views: epistemic deontologism,' which takes a belief to be justified provided the subject (S) meets his epistemic obligations relevant to that bel…
Testimony as a Social Foundation of Knowledge
Testimony is the mainstay of human communication and essential for the spread of knowledge. But testimony may also spread error. Under what conditions does it yield knowledge in the person addressed? Must the recipient trust the attester? And does the attester have to know what is affirmed? A related question is what is required for the recipient to be justified in believing testimony. Is testimony‐based justification acquired in the same way as …
Rationalization and rationality
Belief, Justification and Knowledge
Faith, Belief, and Rationality
Faith and reason are often taken to need reconciliation. They are viewed as not only contrasting, but also competing. The opposition is often seen as a tension between the spiritual and the rational, or between religion and science. I shall argue that, different though they are, faith and reason need not be put on opposing sides in human life. But there is a second mistake that concerns me even more. It is the attempt to reconcile faith and reaso…
Foundationalism, epistemic dependence, and defeasibility
Understanding, Self‐Evidence, and Justification
Self‐evidence is plausibly taken to be a status that marks propositions as capable of being justifiedly believed (and known) on the basis of understanding them. This paper explicates and defends that view. The paper shows that the broadly linguistic kind of understanding implied by basic semantic comprehension of a formulation of a self‐evident proposition does not entail being justified in believing that proposition; that the kind of understandi…
O lugar do testemunho na estrutura do conhecimento e da justificação
O objetivo central neste artigo é o de explicar o que é testemunho e como ele produz conhecimento e justificação. Conforme essa concepção, o testemunho é uma importante e habitual fonte de conhecimento e de justificação, bem como um conceito relevante em epistemologia social, comunicação e psicologia da aquisição de crença. Apesar de o testemunho, nessa concepção, não ser considerado uma fonte básica de conhecimento e justificação, é alegado que …
Religion and the politics of science
This article examines the permissibility of teaching evolution in the public schools of a religiously diverse society. Science is committed to methodological naturalism, which is a limited epistemological position that is silent on issues of religious importance. The article argues that it is possible to teach evolution under the assumptions of methodological naturalism without violating the principle, of secular rationale or the neutrality princ…
The ethics of belief
Intrinsic Value and Moral Obligation
The Morality and Utility of Organ Transplantation
Organ transplantation is at once a technology that raises new ethical problems and a good testing ground for various moral principles. It has become a common procedure in some countries and, at least in the United States, promises to become even more so. It poses questions about costs and benefits as well as the very large question of whether we should try to renew human life indefinitely and, if so, at what cost. It raises the problem of whether…
Intention, cognitive commitment, and planning
Justification, Deductive Closure and Reasons to Believe
By deduction, we often extend both our knowledge and our justified belief. Moreover, in achieving knowledge or justified belief of some proposition, we commonly acquire justification for believing many of its entailed consequences, such as at least some of those that self-evidently follow from it. These and related facts have led some philosophers to endorse strong closure principles, for instance: If a person, S, is justified in believing a prop…
An Internalist Conception of Rational Action
The distinction between internalist and externalist theories is a major topic in contemporary epistemology. This paper assumes that there are extensive parallels between epistemology and the theory of action, and its central task is to articulate the same distinction in the domain of action and to determine whether an internalist position in action theory can explicate rational action. It will be argued that the distinction between internalism an…
On the Conception and Measurement of Attitudes in Contemporary Anglo‐American Psychology
Método filosófico y práctica periodística
Hay muchas maneras en que la filosofía puede ser de gran valor, tanto para la formación periodística como para el ejercicio profesional del periodismo. No se trata aquí de hacer un estudio comprensivo, sino simplemente de sugerir algunos de los puntos nucleares que es preciso captar si hemos de pretender el entendimiento cabal de la relación entre la filosofía y el periodismo. En años recientes han aumentado las relaciones entre estos dos campos.…
On the Conception and Measurement of Attitudes in Contemporary Anglo‐American Psychology
Goldman on ability, excuses and constraint
Wants and Intentions in the Explanation of Action
Tuomela on the explanation of human action
The Causal Structure of Indirect Justification
Foundationalism, epistemic dependence, and defeasibility
Rationalization and rationality
Acting for Reasons
I f we do not know for what reasons a person acts, we do not fully understand that person. If we do not know any reason for which an agent does something, we cannot adequately assess whether, in doing it, that agent is acting rationally. And if Kant is right, unless we know the reason(s) for which an action is performed, we do not know its moral worth. But what is it to act for a reason? Clearly, acting for a reason is closely related to acting i…
Foundationalism, Coherentism, and Epistemological Dogmatism
Foundationalism and coherentism each contain significant epistemological truths. Both positions are, moreover, intellectually influential even outside epistemology: even when neither position is mentioned, one or the other of them often affects philosophical discussion of other topics. It is doubtful that any thesis in either spectrum can be cogently defended unless it captures important points associated with the opposing side. But the construct…
Justification, Truth, and Reliability
There are two quite different strands in the concept of justification, its normative character and its connection with truth. There is a tendency to take one of these as fundamental. That may explain why recent treatments of justification have often been dominated by one or the other of two contrasting views: epistemic deontologism,' which takes a belief to be justified provided the subject (S) meets his epistemic obligations relevant to that bel…
The Cognitivity of Religion
Epistemology and Cognition
Introduction Part I: Theoretical Foundations 1. The Elements of Epistemology 2. Skepticism 3. Knowledge 4. Justification: A Rule Framework 5. Justification and Reliability 6. Problem Solving, Power, and Speed 7. Truth and Realism 8. The Problem of Content Part II: Assessing Our Cognitive Resources 9. Perception 10. Memory 11. Constraints on Representation 12. Internal Codes 13. Deductive Reasoning 14. Probability judgments 15. Acceptance and Unce…
An Internalist Conception of Rational Action
The distinction between internalist and externalist theories is a major topic in contemporary epistemology. This paper assumes that there are extensive parallels between epistemology and the theory of action, and its central task is to articulate the same distinction in the domain of action and to determine whether an internalist position in action theory can explicate rational action. It will be argued that the distinction between internalism an…
Faith, Belief, and Rationality
Faith and reason are often taken to need reconciliation. They are viewed as not only contrasting, but also competing. The opposition is often seen as a tension between the spiritual and the rational, or between religion and science. I shall argue that, different though they are, faith and reason need not be put on opposing sides in human life. But there is a second mistake that concerns me even more. It is the attempt to reconcile faith and reaso…
Intention, cognitive commitment, and planning
Justification, Deductive Closure and Reasons to Believe
By deduction, we often extend both our knowledge and our justified belief. Moreover, in achieving knowledge or justified belief of some proposition, we commonly acquire justification for believing many of its entailed consequences, such as at least some of those that self-evidently follow from it. These and related facts have led some philosophers to endorse strong closure principles, for instance: If a person, S, is justified in believing a prop…
Reason and Morality
Practical Reasoning
Action, Intention, and Reason
Belief, Justification and Knowledge
Deductive Closure, Defeasibility and Scepticism
Journal Article Deductive Closure, Defeasibility and Scepticism: A Reply to Feldman Get access Robert Audi Robert Audi University of Nebraska at Lincoln Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 45, Issue 181, October 1995, Pages 494–499, https://doi.org/10.2307/2220313 Published: 01 October 1995
Action, Intention, and Reason
The Structure of Justification
Journal Article Book Reviews Get access The Structure of Justification. By Robert Audi. (Cambridge UP, 1993. Pp. x + 481. Price £45-00h/b, £14-95 p/b) Walter Sinnott-Armstrong Walter Sinnott-Armstrong Dartmouth College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 45, Issue 180, July 1995, Pages 394–397, https://doi.org/10.2307/2219665 Published: 01 July 1995
The Morality and Utility of Organ Transplantation
Organ transplantation is at once a technology that raises new ethical problems and a good testing ground for various moral principles. It has become a common procedure in some countries and, at least in the United States, promises to become even more so. It poses questions about costs and benefits as well as the very large question of whether we should try to renew human life indefinitely and, if so, at what cost. It raises the problem of whether…
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