ABSTRACT
This essay briefly describes and explores Owen Flanagan’s conception of moral modularity and its relationship to his interests in comparative philosophy, and argues for a particular way to construe the relationship between these two features of his work. Ivanhoe’s aim is to show that the first is conceptually connected with and leads quite naturally to the second and that naturalized approaches in general open up and lead to the consideration and appreciation of other traditions of philosophical inquiry. After describing Flanagan interests in moral modularity and comparative philosophy and showing the underappreciated yet significant conceptual relationship between the two, this essay turns to a current example of their intersection in regard to a key feature of Mengzi’s ethical philosophy. It concludes by offering some general remarks about the significance of Flanagan’s approach to philosophy and the role it will play in the future of the discipline.
