RE: Ben Shapiro vs Neil deGrasse Tyson: The WAR Over Transgender Issues
January 26, 2025 at 7:20 pm
(January 26, 2025 at 7:04 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote:Whilst I'd agree that Metaethical relativism and metaethical subjectivism are generally considered distinct concepts, I don't think they are mutually exclusive, as some interpretations of each could overlap in certain situations.(January 26, 2025 at 6:06 pm)Sheldon Wrote: Morality
noun
1. principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour.
Ultimately all moral assertions rest on subjective opinion.
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Also moral assertions are relative, what if you punched someone for example, to prevent a greater harm, like murder or rape?
Note the notion causing harm is immoral is a subjective one, not an objective one.
Metaethical relativism and metaethical subjectivism are subtly different, but still mutually exclusive claims. All moral claims cannot be metaethically subjectivist and metaethically relativist. Relativist moral systems are often in direct conflict with subjectivist moral systems. Think of an oppressive antimajoritarian ruling regime. The regime says x y and z, and the truth making property of the assertions are not found in facts of the subjects in question, but rather in the possession of power by the ruling regime. Whatever they said would be true. If they said x today and not x tommorrow, both claims would be true, in the metaethically relativist sense, even if nothing had changed.
The idea that there are greater (and worse) x's is an objectivist claim. Rightly or wrongly. It is a fact that circumstances between moral cases an be different regardles of the moral system the moral assertion comes from. Neither relativism nor subjectivism refer to those circumstances, or any fact of the matter in question. They refer to facts of ourselves and facts of our societies, respectively.
Both notions suggest that moral assertions do not rest on objective truths though. I'd agree that moral judgments are not absolute, and that moral judgments are relative to a group's traditions, beliefs, or practices. which is Metaethical relativism. I'd also agree with the idea that the truth of moral statements is dependent on the attitudes or conventions of the people making the judgment, which is metaethical subjectivism, and in both cases moral assertions would not rest ultimately on objective truths, and I think there would be some overlap from both ideas.