An Analysis Of Hale’s Moral Philosophy

Confusions in moral language will lead to confusions of people’s behavior.Hale devoted himself to the logic study of moral words in the early stage,with the purpose of directing people in behavior and avoiding the vortex of moral relativism,reaching a land of moral objectivity.Through the analysis of moral words,Hale concluded that There are characteristics of prescriptivity and universalization within moral judgments,in other words,universal prescriptivism is the result of the study of moral words.On the basis of universal prescriptivism,Hale advanced his moral argument,which aims to show how moral judgments are possible in practice.However,the moral argument itself cannot completely solve the problems in real life.Therefore,the late Hale proposed a preference for utilitarianism to solve these problems.Hale believes that in people’s lives,the biggest practical problem is the conflict of interest,and the preference for utilitarianism is precisely to weigh people’s various desires or interests according to the critical level,so that the desires of all parties can be satisfied to the greatest extent.The theory of universal prescriptivism combined with preference utilitarianism took Hale a big step forward on the road to moral objectivity,and universal prescriptivism and preference utilitarianism are not independent but complementary,and the moral argument model derived from the former provides proof for the fair treatment of the interests of all,while the latter answers the question of what is to treat the interests of all people justly.Undoubtedly,Hale’s theory solved some practical problems that could not be solved by previous people,and brought the development of moral philosophy to a new level.