PX and PhD Research - Nicholas Makins: "Attitudinal Ambivalence: Moral Uncertainty for Non-Cognitivists"

We interview Nicholas Makins on his recent publication "Attitudinal Ambivalence: Moral Uncertainty for Non-Cognitivists". In this paper, Makins adopts a non-cognivist account of moral judgements, characterized not as beliefs but as cognitive attitudes, like desires or forms of will. The aim of the article is to show that this view can be better defended if one defines moral doubt not in terms of credential uncertainty (viz., lack of information) but as ambivalence – i.e., a situation where two conflicting desires clash with each other. The fascinating proposal is illustrated via some examples through the podcast conversation, which opens insightful reflection about the nature of moral attitudes and the strategy one should adopt in cases of moral doubt. You can read the paper here https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2021.1908380