Changing Our Nature

Abstract

Abstract This chapter argues that a historicized variation of Aristotelian ethical naturalism provides the right normative framework for the theory of moral conceptual change defended in this book. It begins with a characterization of the immutability thesis, which holds that, if objective moral grounds exist, they must be immutable. It provides examples of philosophers committed to this thesis from the early modern period to the present and considers a Kantian argument in its favor. It then argues that the notion of a life-form at work in Aristotelian ethical naturalism offers a framework for defending ethical objectivity while allowing that human nature undergoes historical change, building upon work by Philippa Foot and Michael Thompson. It then draws upon Charles Taylor’s notion of articulation to argue that linguistic and conceptual changes in the ways we articulate the conditions of human flourishing can be understood, in some cases, as transforming those very conditions.