Particularism and Default Valency

In this paper, which draws on some of the distinctions I made and thoughts I gave in my 'Moral Particularism: An Introduction', elsewhere in the volume of JMP, I concentrate on the notion of default valency. In §1 I outline a recent debate that shows why the notion is important for particularists to have up their sleeves, although I do not give a detailed defence of its legitimacy. In §2 I use this notion to comment on how anyone, but particularly particularists, might distinguish reason-generating features into different types. My main aim is not to argue for a specific way of dividing such features into types but to present various taxonomical options.