1. Chapter Thirteen:
Moral Realism and the
Challenge of Skepticism
Moral Realism
This theory claims that moral facts exist and are
part of the fabric of the universe: they exist
independently of our thoughts about them

2. Terms
•Nonnaturalism: a theory held by
nonnaturalistic moral realists who ground moral
values in nonnatural facts about the world
•Moral skepticism: a denial that moral values
are objectively factual
•Moral nihilism: holds that there are no moral
facts, no moral truths, and no moral knowledge.

3. Mackie’s Moral Skepticism
•Argues “there are no objective values”, there
are no objective moral truths
•His view is not about the meaning of moral
statements but about objective facts, about
whether there are any factually right or good
actions.

4. Arguments from Relativity,
Queerness, and Projection
•Mackie offers three arguments for his skeptical
position:
•1. Argument from relativity: there is no
universal moral code to which all people adhere
to
•2. Argument from queerness: the implausiblity
of supposing that such things as values have an
independent existence

5. Arguments from Relativity,
Queerness, and Projection
• 3. Argument from projection: aims to show
that belief in objective value is the result of
psychological tendencies to project subjective
beliefs to the outside world

6. Harman’s Moral Nihilism
•Defends an extreme Moral Nihilism, morality is
simply an illusion
•Disanalogy thesis: moral principles cannot be
tested by observation in the same way that
scientific theories can.
•We choose our moral values not because of the
way the world is, but because of the way we
were brought up into this world.

7. Criticism: Scientific and Moral
Observation are Analogous
•There is no strong disanalogy between scientific
and moral observation
•May not be able to be tested in the same way as
empirical theories but they can be tested

8. A Defense of Moral Realism
•Moral Facts about Happiness and Suffering
•Universal and Supervenient Properties
•Noncognitivism and Moral Realism