A Kingdom of this World: Ferrater Mora’s Contributions to Ethics

Ferrater Mora’s viewpoint in moral philosophy was significantly original. In certain aspects, he anticipated positions which were further developed by other theorists decades later. In metaethics, Ferrater opposed moral realism, as well as the view that there is such thing as cathegorical imperatives. He defended a relativist viewpoint and an internalist stance about reasons. In normative ethics, he proposed a system of ends dissimilar to any of the normative theories that are more widely accepted today, and tried to put together certain traits of contractarian and consequentialist views. Finally, he dignified applied ethics in the Spanish speaking world. Moreover, he adopted rather commited positions in this field, in a context which was not favorable at that time. Most significantly, he did this in his defense of the moral consideration of animals, and his rejection of speciesist views.