Abstract

The literature about moral worth concerns what it takes for morally right actions to be morally praiseworthy. A much-discussed example is that of Huckleberry Finn, who acts rightly by helping a fugitive slave Jim, even though he believes that doing so is morally wrong. The case is interesting because Huck’s action seems to have moral worth even though he believes that he acts wrongly.

This has prompted several attempts to explain how actions like Huck’s can have moral worth without correct moral beliefs. In this paper, my aim is to flesh out an underappriciated possibility, namely that Huck can implicitly believe that his action is morally right even though he explicitly believes that it is wrong. In doing so, I incidentally show that attempts to explain how Huck’s action can have moral worth without correct moral beliefs are unwarranted.