Defending Moral Realism from Empirical Evidence of Disagreement.

Recently, empirically minded philosophers have employed evidence of widespread, fundamental moral disagreement to argue against moral realism. I argue that the empirical evidence does not refute realism because the disagreement is consistent with certain pluralistic versions of moral realism that po...

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Published in:Social Theory & Practice Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 393 - 417
Main Author: Meyers, C. D.
Format: Article
Published: Florida State University Jul2013
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        au: Meyers, C. D.
        affil: Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Southern Mississippi
      su:
        Mackie, J. L.
        Moral psychology
        Pluralism
        Social psychology
        Moral realism
      sug:
        subj:
          Moral psychology
          Pluralism
          Social psychology
          Moral realism
          Mackie, J. L.
      keyword:
        disagreement
        empirical philosophy
        J.L. Mackie
        moral psychology
        moral realism
        pluralism
        W.D. Ross
        disagreement
        empirical philosophy
        J.L. Mackie
        moral psychology
        moral realism
        pluralism
        W.D. Ross
      ab: Recently, empirically minded philosophers have employed evidence of widespread, fundamental moral disagreement to argue against moral realism. I argue that the empirical evidence does not refute realism because the disagreement is consistent with certain pluralistic versions of moral realism that posit a set of pro tanto normative principles. Others have appealed to pluralism in defense of moral realism but have used pluralism to attack the empirically based approach to ethical theory. Although I argue that the empirical argument against moral realism fails, I defend the approach and suggest better ways that (pluralist) moral realism could be tested empirically.
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      src: R
    language: English
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