I'm asking what an ethical purpose is in the first place. Anyone know?
According to a casual google search, it doesn't appear to be one of those annoying cases where academics use words to arbitrarily mean something totally else other than what the words mean. As such, I would interpret it to mean exactly what the words mean.
For example, a "red ball" is not some special out of context thing. It's a ball...that's red.
So, an ethical purpose would be a purpose...that's ethical. Since in this particular sentence they're using "the," they're implying a
singular purpose. Which seems a bit silly to me, since there are several very reasonable interpretations here. For example...
I'm not asking what the ethical purpose of the argument is
...oh. Ok. Umm, then consider the following statement: "you shouldn't beat your wife."
What might be a purpose for this advice? Well, if you do the thing I'm advising you to not do, you might be arrested.Following the advice serves the purpose of causing you to not suffer the consequence of being arrested for beating your wife. Or, another example: If you do the thing I'm advising you to not do, your wife might not like you anymore. Again, a very practical purpose: avoiding the consequence of losing the fondness of your wife.
But there aren't especially "ethical" purposes. If you want an ethical purpose for not beating your wife, how about: "beating your wife might make her hurt and unhappy, so not beating her avoids that suffering." Voila, ethical purpose: servicing the well-being of another.