Considering Program Explanation in Defense of Cornell Realism

Cornell realism has been widely discussed in contemporary literature of philosophy. Jackson and Pettit (1990) propose an influential defensive argument called “program explanation” pro-Cornell realism. This explanation bestows moral higher-order properties a place in the best explanation of the natural world. We begin by specification of the proposal and its explanatory role in moral endeavors. In part two, Leiter’s criticisms against program explanation will be assessed. In part three, we consider Miller’s criticisms against both Leiter’s argument as well as program explanation. We end by proposing a new defence of program explanation based on Nelson’s argument.