RE: “Normative” ethical theories
January 16, 2026 at 11:49 am
(This post was last modified: January 16, 2026 at 11:54 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Sure. If you don’t think that harm is real or really wrong, that harm reduction is real or really right to do, that the set of pro social values leads to harm reductions that even a pure egoist would accept if they properly understood it, and that there is no ought in in organizing our societies towards those values…you wouldn’t be doing any form of moral realism.
I’d add it’s not just error theorists who aren’t doing moral realism, at least in an intellectual sense. There are plenty of other isms. There is, ofc, the sense in which what we do or apprehend is not completely consistent with some position we hold. For example….im dead certain, as a moral realist, some of my moral intuitions are not well grounded in realism, though I act in life as though they are. Some of them I know…but there’s a set of them that I know must exist but I’m not fully aware of the contents. Things that -seem- grounded in realism for some (or no particular) reason- but are not. Mistakes of fact, misapplication of principle. Etc.
In that sense, I’m doing realism, even though those items are not valid realist content.
I’d add it’s not just error theorists who aren’t doing moral realism, at least in an intellectual sense. There are plenty of other isms. There is, ofc, the sense in which what we do or apprehend is not completely consistent with some position we hold. For example….im dead certain, as a moral realist, some of my moral intuitions are not well grounded in realism, though I act in life as though they are. Some of them I know…but there’s a set of them that I know must exist but I’m not fully aware of the contents. Things that -seem- grounded in realism for some (or no particular) reason- but are not. Mistakes of fact, misapplication of principle. Etc.
In that sense, I’m doing realism, even though those items are not valid realist content.
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