Commitment and reflection in moral life

On the view that Nicholas Adams advocates in 'Alternatives to Moral Common Ground', ethics is complicit in undermining the commitments that constitute our moral lives, because by forcing us to articulate those commitments they lose their hold on us. In this paper I take Adams' views as a starting point to explore the idea that ethics might be complicit in undermining our moral lives. Aiming to shed light on the relation between reflection and commitment, I will do two things. First, I try to explain why ethics, as a reflective enterprise, undermines the unspoken hold our commitments have on us. Second, I will explore the idea that reflection is destructive in the sense that it falsifies our pre-reflective commitments.

Automated summary

This paper takes Nicholas Adams' views as a starting point to explore the complicity of ethics in undermining our moral lives. It aims to shed light on the relationship between reflection and commitment, explaining how ethics as a reflective enterprise weakens our unspoken control over commitments and exploring how reflection falsifies our pre-reflective commitments.