History, Experience, Ethics: the real x-phi?

Abstract

This paper will bring a number of questions into relation with each other. These may appear to be strangely disparate at first, but I hope to show that something productive might come out of addressing them together. First, some styles of philosophy place a great deal of emphasis on intuitionsand seem to hold open the possibility that one could, or occasionally should, change these intuitions. But, how do those forms of philosophy understand this process? How could they account for the possibility, for example, of getting rid of an intuition? Second, does it make sense to think of ethics as involving or requiring a transformation of experience? In other words, has honey always tasted like honey? Third, what does it mean for a philosophical practice to be experimental? Where are we likely to find the real x-phi?