The Benefits of Moral Realism

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

In ethics there are a lot of data that we either have to account for or explain away. One of the big benefits of moral realism which has been recognized for a while but it's never been put quite this way is that when it comes to the data of ethics moral realism does a fantastic job of accounting for them. That doesn't make it a superior kind of view because we should explain these data away.

Despite occasional and important disagreements, most people are in rough agreement about what it means to be moral, to do the right thing. There’s much less agreement about why we should be moral, or even what kind of answer to that question could be convincing. Philosopher Russ Shafer-Landau is one of the leading proponents of moral realism — the view that objective moral truths exist independently of human choices. That’s not my own view, but ethics and meta-ethics are areas in which I think it’s wise to keep an open mind and listen to smart people who disagree. This conversation offers food for thought for people on either side of this debate.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Russ Shafer-Landau received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Arizona. He is currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Among his numerous books are Moral Realism: A Defense and Whatever Happened to Good and Evil? He is the editor of Oxford Studies in Metaethics, and is the founder and organizer of the annual Madison Metaethics Workshop.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.