My views on objective morality

[Chas]

Can you reason your way out of thinking murdering an innocent is wrong, or that fairness is right?...We can't always see the entailments of our moral judgements and it's our understanding of the entailments which we must temper as we are, or can be, wrong about those entailments.  But the moral foundations come to us like immovable pillars within which we must fit our moral reasonings.

You could reason your way out of thinking that physical objects are solid, as opposed to mostly empty space, even though such appearances are naturally compelling. While knowledge and sound reasoning do not always alter someone’s immediate experiences, instincts and/or habitual responses, he or she can still proceed appropriately by understanding things as they actually are rather than how they merely appear to be. I do not think we are that far apart on this issue. What you call ‘immovable pillars’ need not be so compelling that they cannot be countermanded, for good or ill. You seem to acknowledge as much by saying that if people know about their innate biases then they can override them to cultivate virtue.

Where I think we differ is on the critical question of whether there are moral facts about being human, facts that do not depend on the opinion of one individual; but rather, can be discerned independently in the same way other facts are known: reason applied to experience. The validity of moral reasoning depends on such moral facts to justify overruling instinct. The most basic notion of virtue is predicated on the idea that virtues are real attributes related to definable features of human nature. Otherwise value judgments are meaningless.

Morality is based on feelings and assumptions, not on facts.  That something is generally believed (e.g. killing is wrong) does not make it a fact.

Anyone that calls some things right and others wrong or talks about justice tacitly accepts the existence of moral facts.

No.  Right and wrong are emotional responses.  They are subjective judgments, not statements of fact.

I object to those who knowingly deny the existence of moral facts but nevertheless treat human interactions in anything other than power dynamics. Interestingly, I do not recall you ever expressing a moral judgment although many others who deny moral facts do.

I object to those who claim there are moral facts without making the slightest effort to justify them or explain how they can be identified.