RE: “Normative” ethical theories
September 21, 2025 at 10:29 am
(This post was last modified: September 21, 2025 at 10:37 am by The Grand Nudger.)
We have to be careful here. Natural realism is not an appeal to metaphysical naturalism . It is an appeal to natural facts. IE, empirical facts. There may be other kinds of facts, these are simply not the facts such the moral system is based on - nor are they the kind of facts our moral statements purport to report, if so.
Additionally, the latter is moral desert, not metaethics. It may be true that some moral claims are true in non novel ways and simultaneously false that we ought to be positively appraised if I do some and commended, but disapproved of and potentially punished for others. A vast reduction in moral praise and condemnation is consistent with most realist ethics. In fact, I'd say that the author makes a decent realist case for exactly this. Similarly, whether or not a given person is compelled by any type of normative assertion (and which kind) is a question of agency. It may be true that there are moral facts, and those facts are natural facts, and a given person or society will not find that compelling. This happens to me all the time. I look at a thing I want, I look at my bank account, there's not enough in there...and I get it anyway. Consequences follow.
Now here we are to the meat of it. You cannot acknowledge or invoke natural facts, and then say they are merely your preferences. They are one or the other. Consider all of the things you wish were not true, but are..and all of the things you wish were true, and aren't. Those facts that you might cite from whatever studies you could source would still be true no matter how you or me or some warlord felt about it, no? That you think a practical ethics has something to do with human well-being and not a warlord getting his jollies or his henchman getting fat and rich is a fact alike assertion too..isn't it?
Additionally, the latter is moral desert, not metaethics. It may be true that some moral claims are true in non novel ways and simultaneously false that we ought to be positively appraised if I do some and commended, but disapproved of and potentially punished for others. A vast reduction in moral praise and condemnation is consistent with most realist ethics. In fact, I'd say that the author makes a decent realist case for exactly this. Similarly, whether or not a given person is compelled by any type of normative assertion (and which kind) is a question of agency. It may be true that there are moral facts, and those facts are natural facts, and a given person or society will not find that compelling. This happens to me all the time. I look at a thing I want, I look at my bank account, there's not enough in there...and I get it anyway. Consequences follow.
Now here we are to the meat of it. You cannot acknowledge or invoke natural facts, and then say they are merely your preferences. They are one or the other. Consider all of the things you wish were not true, but are..and all of the things you wish were true, and aren't. Those facts that you might cite from whatever studies you could source would still be true no matter how you or me or some warlord felt about it, no? That you think a practical ethics has something to do with human well-being and not a warlord getting his jollies or his henchman getting fat and rich is a fact alike assertion too..isn't it?
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