Nigel Pleasants
Biographic Data
| ID | 253915 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nigel Pleasants |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nigel |
| FAMILY NAME | Pleasants |
| SIGNATURE | PLEASANTS N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Exeter |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3644-4044 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 41 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Moral certainty and the wrongness of killing
In 2008 I published a paper making the case that Wittgenstein's On Certainty reflections can be fruitfully extended to cast light on the foundations of our moral lives and practices. My primary example was that the wrongness of killing is a basic moral certainty. This proposal has come in for sustained criticism, with critics arguing that there is can and can be no such moral certainty. In this paper, I respond to the dominant line of critique, w…
Hinge-certainty and the asymmetricality of ‘deep moral disagreement’
The idea of deep disagreement, as a peculiarly distinct kind of disagreement, was seminally introduced by Fogelin. His diagnosis of the problems posed by deep disagreement was based on what at the time was the unappreciated insight and wisdom of Wittgenstein’s On Certainty (1969). Many epistemologists of deep disagreement nowadays draw on the flourishing research programme of hinge epistemology that derives from On Certainty , and define deep dis…
Did Marx Really Think That Capitalism Is Unjust
Marx is typically and commonsensically seen as the arch moral critic of capitalism. But Allen Wood, in his celebrated but provocative ‘The Marxian critique of justice’, argued that in fact Marx held that capitalism (the capitalist mode of production) is not unjust, and indeed that it is perfectly just. His reasons in support of this attribution issue directly from Marx’s overarching social scientific and historical-cum-philosophical paradigm, ‘hi…
Philosophical Perspectives on Moral Certainty
Moral certainty refers to those aspects of morality – moral acting, feeling, and thinking – that are beyond doubt, explanation, and justification. The essays in this book explore the concept of moral certainty and its application and usefulness in contemporary moral debates. The notion of moral certainty, which is inspired by the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, is emerging as a key reference point in contemporary moral philosophy. An investiga…
Excuse and justification
A well-worn French proverb pronounces ' tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner' ('to understand all is to forgive all'). Is forgiveness the inevitable consequence of social scientific understanding of the actions and lives of perpetrators of serious wrongdoing? Do social scientific explanations provide excuses or justifications for the perpetrators of the actions that the explanations purport to explain? In this essay, I seek clarification of these…
Capitalism and democracy in the twenty-first century
Free Will, Determinism and the “Problem” of Structure and Agency in the Social Sciences
The so-called “problem” of structure and agency is clearly related to the philosophical problem of free will and determinism, yet the central philosophical issues are not well understood by theorists of structure and agency in the social sciences. In this article I draw a map of the available stances on the metaphysics of free will and determinism. With the aid of this map the problem of structure and agency will be seen to dissolve. The problem …
The Structure of Moral Revolutions
In the recent and not-too-distant past many of our parents, grandparents and forbears believed that a person’s skin colour and physiognomy, gender, or sexuality licensed them being regarded and treated in ways that are now widely recognised as blatantly unjust, disrespectful, cruel and brutal. But the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries have hosted a series of radical changes in attitudes, beliefs, behaviour and institutionalised pr…
Ordinary Men
In the space of their 16-month posting to Poland, the 500 men of Police Battalion 101 genocidally massacred 38,000 Jews by rifle and pistol fire. Although they were acting as members of a formal security force, these men knew that they could avoid participation in killing operations with impunity, and a substantial minority did so. Why, then, did so many participate in the genocidal killing when they knew they did not have to? Landmark historical…
Moral Argument Is Not Enough
Slavery seems to us to be a paradigm of a morally wrong insti- tutionalized practice. And yet for most of its millennia-long historical exis- tence it was typi cally accepted as a natural, necessary, and inevitable feature of the social world. This widespread normative consensus was only chal- lenged toward the end of the eighteenth century. Then, within a hundred years of the emergence of radical moral criticism of slavery, the existing
Structure, Agency and Ontological Confusion
Colin Hay's article ‘King Canute and the “Problem” of Structure and Agency’ aims to: (1) ‘gain an interesting political analytical purchase on a seemingly familiar tale’, and (2) ‘generate a series of valuable and more general insights into our understanding of the structure-agency relationship’. I argue that he fails on both counts
The concept of learning from the study of the Holocaust
In his much-discussed Hitler’s Willing Executioners, Daniel Goldhagen claims to bring ‘the critical eye of the anthropologist’ to the task of understanding the motivational state of Holocaust perpetrators. This aspect of his methodology has not received much critical attention. In this article I seek to fill that gap. I do so through consideration of Peter Winch’s reflections on the concept of learning from anthropological study of an alien socia…
Social Criticism for ‘Critical Critics’
Winch, Wittgenstein and the Idea of a critical social theory
The received understanding of Winch’s critique of social science is that he propounded a radically relativist, anti-explanatory and a-critical conception of the legitimate task of ‘social studies’. This conception is presumed to be predicated upon an extension of Wittgenstein’s critique of philosophy. I argue, against this view, that Winch reads Wittgenstein through a Kantian framework, and that in fact he advanced a rigorously essentialist and u…
Wittgenstein and the Idea of a Critical Social Theory
Wittgenstein and the idea of a critical social theory
Free to act otherwise? A Wittgensteinian deconstruction of the concept of agency in contemporary social and political theory
The concept of agency, defined counterfactually as the freedom to 'act otherwise', occupies a central place in much of contemporary social and political theory. In criticizing this concept of agency I deploy what I call an 'immanent critique', focusing upon Bhaskar's 'transcendental realism' and Rorty's anti-realist theory of linguistic contingency. Invoking Wittgenstein's argumentation from On Certainty, I go on to contend that agency and freedo…
The Post-Positivist Dispute in Social Studies of Science and its Bearing on Social Theory
Nothing is Concealed
The concept of “tacit knowledge” as the means by which individuals interpret the “rules” of social interaction occupies a central role in all the major contemporary theories of action and social structure. The major reference point for social theorists is Wittgenstein's celebrated discussion of rule‐following in the Philosophical Investigations. Focusing on Giddens' incorporation of tacit knowledge and rules into his “theory of structuration”, I …
Nothing is Concealed
The concept of “tacit knowledge” as the means by which individuals interpret the “rules” of social interaction occupies a central role in all the major contemporary theories of action and social structure. The major reference point for social theorists is Wittgenstein's celebrated discussion of rule‐following in the Philosophical Investigations. Focusing on Giddens' incorporation of tacit knowledge and rules into his “theory of structuration”, I …
Winch, Wittgenstein and the Idea of a critical social theory
The received understanding of Winch’s critique of social science is that he propounded a radically relativist, anti-explanatory and a-critical conception of the legitimate task of ‘social studies’. This conception is presumed to be predicated upon an extension of Wittgenstein’s critique of philosophy. I argue, against this view, that Winch reads Wittgenstein through a Kantian framework, and that in fact he advanced a rigorously essentialist and u…
Free Will, Determinism and the “Problem” of Structure and Agency in the Social Sciences
The so-called “problem” of structure and agency is clearly related to the philosophical problem of free will and determinism, yet the central philosophical issues are not well understood by theorists of structure and agency in the social sciences. In this article I draw a map of the available stances on the metaphysics of free will and determinism. With the aid of this map the problem of structure and agency will be seen to dissolve. The problem …
Free to act otherwise? A Wittgensteinian deconstruction of the concept of agency in contemporary social and political theory
The concept of agency, defined counterfactually as the freedom to 'act otherwise', occupies a central place in much of contemporary social and political theory. In criticizing this concept of agency I deploy what I call an 'immanent critique', focusing upon Bhaskar's 'transcendental realism' and Rorty's anti-realist theory of linguistic contingency. Invoking Wittgenstein's argumentation from On Certainty, I go on to contend that agency and freedo…
Excuse and justification
A well-worn French proverb pronounces ' tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner' ('to understand all is to forgive all'). Is forgiveness the inevitable consequence of social scientific understanding of the actions and lives of perpetrators of serious wrongdoing? Do social scientific explanations provide excuses or justifications for the perpetrators of the actions that the explanations purport to explain? In this essay, I seek clarification of these…
Ordinary Men
In the space of their 16-month posting to Poland, the 500 men of Police Battalion 101 genocidally massacred 38,000 Jews by rifle and pistol fire. Although they were acting as members of a formal security force, these men knew that they could avoid participation in killing operations with impunity, and a substantial minority did so. Why, then, did so many participate in the genocidal killing when they knew they did not have to? Landmark historical…
Structure, Agency and Ontological Confusion
Colin Hay's article ‘King Canute and the “Problem” of Structure and Agency’ aims to: (1) ‘gain an interesting political analytical purchase on a seemingly familiar tale’, and (2) ‘generate a series of valuable and more general insights into our understanding of the structure-agency relationship’. I argue that he fails on both counts
Hinge-certainty and the asymmetricality of ‘deep moral disagreement’
The idea of deep disagreement, as a peculiarly distinct kind of disagreement, was seminally introduced by Fogelin. His diagnosis of the problems posed by deep disagreement was based on what at the time was the unappreciated insight and wisdom of Wittgenstein’s On Certainty (1969). Many epistemologists of deep disagreement nowadays draw on the flourishing research programme of hinge epistemology that derives from On Certainty , and define deep dis…
The Post-Positivist Dispute in Social Studies of Science and its Bearing on Social Theory
Nothing is Concealed
The concept of “tacit knowledge” as the means by which individuals interpret the “rules” of social interaction occupies a central role in all the major contemporary theories of action and social structure. The major reference point for social theorists is Wittgenstein's celebrated discussion of rule‐following in the Philosophical Investigations. Focusing on Giddens' incorporation of tacit knowledge and rules into his “theory of structuration”, I …
Free to act otherwise? A Wittgensteinian deconstruction of the concept of agency in contemporary social and political theory
The concept of agency, defined counterfactually as the freedom to 'act otherwise', occupies a central place in much of contemporary social and political theory. In criticizing this concept of agency I deploy what I call an 'immanent critique', focusing upon Bhaskar's 'transcendental realism' and Rorty's anti-realist theory of linguistic contingency. Invoking Wittgenstein's argumentation from On Certainty, I go on to contend that agency and freedo…
The Post-Positivist Dispute in Social Studies of Science and its Bearing on Social Theory
Wittgenstein and the Idea of a Critical Social Theory
Wittgenstein and the idea of a critical social theory
Winch, Wittgenstein and the Idea of a critical social theory
The received understanding of Winch’s critique of social science is that he propounded a radically relativist, anti-explanatory and a-critical conception of the legitimate task of ‘social studies’. This conception is presumed to be predicated upon an extension of Wittgenstein’s critique of philosophy. I argue, against this view, that Winch reads Wittgenstein through a Kantian framework, and that in fact he advanced a rigorously essentialist and u…
Social Criticism for ‘Critical Critics’
The concept of learning from the study of the Holocaust
In his much-discussed Hitler’s Willing Executioners, Daniel Goldhagen claims to bring ‘the critical eye of the anthropologist’ to the task of understanding the motivational state of Holocaust perpetrators. This aspect of his methodology has not received much critical attention. In this article I seek to fill that gap. I do so through consideration of Peter Winch’s reflections on the concept of learning from anthropological study of an alien socia…
Structure, Agency and Ontological Confusion
Colin Hay's article ‘King Canute and the “Problem” of Structure and Agency’ aims to: (1) ‘gain an interesting political analytical purchase on a seemingly familiar tale’, and (2) ‘generate a series of valuable and more general insights into our understanding of the structure-agency relationship’. I argue that he fails on both counts
Moral Argument Is Not Enough
Slavery seems to us to be a paradigm of a morally wrong insti- tutionalized practice. And yet for most of its millennia-long historical exis- tence it was typi cally accepted as a natural, necessary, and inevitable feature of the social world. This widespread normative consensus was only chal- lenged toward the end of the eighteenth century. Then, within a hundred years of the emergence of radical moral criticism of slavery, the existing
The Structure of Moral Revolutions
In the recent and not-too-distant past many of our parents, grandparents and forbears believed that a person’s skin colour and physiognomy, gender, or sexuality licensed them being regarded and treated in ways that are now widely recognised as blatantly unjust, disrespectful, cruel and brutal. But the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries have hosted a series of radical changes in attitudes, beliefs, behaviour and institutionalised pr…
Ordinary Men
In the space of their 16-month posting to Poland, the 500 men of Police Battalion 101 genocidally massacred 38,000 Jews by rifle and pistol fire. Although they were acting as members of a formal security force, these men knew that they could avoid participation in killing operations with impunity, and a substantial minority did so. Why, then, did so many participate in the genocidal killing when they knew they did not have to? Landmark historical…
Free Will, Determinism and the “Problem” of Structure and Agency in the Social Sciences
The so-called “problem” of structure and agency is clearly related to the philosophical problem of free will and determinism, yet the central philosophical issues are not well understood by theorists of structure and agency in the social sciences. In this article I draw a map of the available stances on the metaphysics of free will and determinism. With the aid of this map the problem of structure and agency will be seen to dissolve. The problem …
Capitalism and democracy in the twenty-first century
Excuse and justification
A well-worn French proverb pronounces ' tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner' ('to understand all is to forgive all'). Is forgiveness the inevitable consequence of social scientific understanding of the actions and lives of perpetrators of serious wrongdoing? Do social scientific explanations provide excuses or justifications for the perpetrators of the actions that the explanations purport to explain? In this essay, I seek clarification of these…
Did Marx Really Think That Capitalism Is Unjust
Marx is typically and commonsensically seen as the arch moral critic of capitalism. But Allen Wood, in his celebrated but provocative ‘The Marxian critique of justice’, argued that in fact Marx held that capitalism (the capitalist mode of production) is not unjust, and indeed that it is perfectly just. His reasons in support of this attribution issue directly from Marx’s overarching social scientific and historical-cum-philosophical paradigm, ‘hi…
Philosophical Perspectives on Moral Certainty
Moral certainty refers to those aspects of morality – moral acting, feeling, and thinking – that are beyond doubt, explanation, and justification. The essays in this book explore the concept of moral certainty and its application and usefulness in contemporary moral debates. The notion of moral certainty, which is inspired by the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, is emerging as a key reference point in contemporary moral philosophy. An investiga…
Hinge-certainty and the asymmetricality of ‘deep moral disagreement’
The idea of deep disagreement, as a peculiarly distinct kind of disagreement, was seminally introduced by Fogelin. His diagnosis of the problems posed by deep disagreement was based on what at the time was the unappreciated insight and wisdom of Wittgenstein’s On Certainty (1969). Many epistemologists of deep disagreement nowadays draw on the flourishing research programme of hinge epistemology that derives from On Certainty , and define deep dis…
Moral certainty and the wrongness of killing
In 2008 I published a paper making the case that Wittgenstein's On Certainty reflections can be fruitfully extended to cast light on the foundations of our moral lives and practices. My primary example was that the wrongness of killing is a basic moral certainty. This proposal has come in for sustained criticism, with critics arguing that there is can and can be no such moral certainty. In this paper, I respond to the dominant line of critique, w…
Epistemology (16 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Political science (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Law (7 works) · Certainty (5 works) · Politics (5 works)