Lockean Puzzles

Abstract

In analytic moral philosophy it is normal to use thought experiments in order to try and settle moral disputes. The use of particularly unrealistic experiments is perhaps a bit disreputable but quite familiar. This paper will try to explore what is and what is not problematic about the use of such peculiarly unrealistic puzzles (I am tempted to call them Lockean Puzzles) as a component part of philosophical arguments. In particular, I will try to flesh out the claim that what may be lost sight of in such peculiar forms of puzzling is the personal dimension of moral deliberation, the way in which at least some moral problems differ from technical problems in the sense that they are non-transferrable. (We cannot hand them over to others for solution.)