Phillipa Foot and Natural Goodness - Essay Example

When brought into comparison with contrasting philosophical models, Foot's Natural Goodness is not entirely without merit but it is unfortunately lacking in several features that are readily found in other philosophical structures. Natural Goodness is a set of moral ideas that are expected to differ from individual to individual; Foot understood that while each person might pander to his or her own moral code that these codes were never the same in two circumstances. Phillipa Foot makes a strong case for Natural Goodness but her critics make just as strong a case for its frailties.

Foot is a British philosopher dedicated to the conception of philosophical models that explain daily occurrences in society. She is a descendent of the American president Grover Cleveland, was born and raised in the United Kingdom and studied philosophy at Oxford University. Foot's approach to philosophy has been largely aimed at deconstructing other non-cognitive approaches within the field that posit every action is based on sets of circumstances other than though processes. Her work is influenced heavily by Wittgenstein and through her belief that philosophy should be relevant to modern life and offer solutions, she has gained worldwide acclaim with subjects like the so-called "trolley problem" and for generally expanding the ideological pool of ideas in terms of cognitivism.

Her book Natural Goodness attempted a different line of logic from her preceding publication, "Moral Beliefs", which presented a case for both cognitive and non-cognitive foundations for different types of ethical behaviour. "Moral Beliefs" expressed Foot's opinion that pieces of a moral character like courage or a sense of justice are cognitively trained, while moral actions are based on logical conclusion without the emotive qualities that they are usually assigned. Turning this idea around in Natural Goodness shocked many of her readers; Foot wrote that emotive qualities of any action or moral belief system were moot.

Instead, each personal moral characteristic and each moral action performed by an individual are linked directly to a set of cognitive processes that have logically monitored related experiences and developed a unique moral set of guidelines. Natural Goodness As a philosopher, Foot has faced the issue of human nature incessantly throughout her career. The underlying question in each of her works is "why be moral". She has spent her career trying to discover the true nature of individual morality and understanding whether it is a cognitive reflex of sorts or whether it is indeed more of a non-cognitive feature of humanity as many of her contemporaries propose.

Foot's years of study on the subject of morality has led her to stand by her own cognitive approach to ethical behaviour because as she sees it, human behaviour is indisputably based on cumulative experiences and the cognitive processes that deal with a constant influx of information. The brain is designed to deal with information by 'filing' memories in similar fields where they can be cross referenced to their outcomes, the surrounding circumstances and therefore they can each be grouped according to