We're not far off from agreement, I think. We'd both agree that red light is real, and say that this or that thing "is" red, though that's a bit of a simplification.
But in all cases, there are things and properties of them. We can talk about red light, and consider its wavelength a property. We can talk about an apple, and consider being red a property.
But for moral ideas, this seems much less clear to me: what's the object, and what's the property? Is wrongness a property of rape? Is wrongness itself an object, and our moral instincts a kind of sense of it, such that some of us sense it well, and others poorly?
I'd argue that I experience red. That's an experience I can have which is not really subject (for the most part) to interpretation. Most people will look at a stop sign and immediately see that redness is one of its properties.
But I'm convinced that many people actually do not believe, and cannot perceive, that rape for example is wrong. Suppose you give up your ten best cows for a healthy young teenage girl, one who is known in your community as a bit of a troublemaker but whom you are willing to take under your wing, and she spurns you on your wedding night. What an outrage! How lacking in understanding she is! How immoral she is!
So either wrongness is not a property of rape, or cultural bias prevents people from accessing their sense of wrongness. I think the former is infinitely more likely-- that wrongness is neither a thing, nor a property of any thing. Instead, it's one of the human emotions-- no less familiar and no better understood than love or a sense of beauty.
But in all cases, there are things and properties of them. We can talk about red light, and consider its wavelength a property. We can talk about an apple, and consider being red a property.
But for moral ideas, this seems much less clear to me: what's the object, and what's the property? Is wrongness a property of rape? Is wrongness itself an object, and our moral instincts a kind of sense of it, such that some of us sense it well, and others poorly?
I'd argue that I experience red. That's an experience I can have which is not really subject (for the most part) to interpretation. Most people will look at a stop sign and immediately see that redness is one of its properties.
But I'm convinced that many people actually do not believe, and cannot perceive, that rape for example is wrong. Suppose you give up your ten best cows for a healthy young teenage girl, one who is known in your community as a bit of a troublemaker but whom you are willing to take under your wing, and she spurns you on your wedding night. What an outrage! How lacking in understanding she is! How immoral she is!
So either wrongness is not a property of rape, or cultural bias prevents people from accessing their sense of wrongness. I think the former is infinitely more likely-- that wrongness is neither a thing, nor a property of any thing. Instead, it's one of the human emotions-- no less familiar and no better understood than love or a sense of beauty.
