The Significance of Being Ethical: An essay on the case for moral realism and theism
Journal Title: Scientia et Fides - Year 2016, Vol 4, Issue 1
Abstract
William Irwin defends a form of moral anti-realism, according to which there are no objective moral facts. He contends that moral realism is objectionable because of its being more complex or not as simple as anti-realism; moral realism is in conflict with science; moral realism is also challenged by the fact that our moral judgements would differ if we were subject to a different biology or evolutionary past. Irwin also argues that insofar as moral realism is supportable evidentially by experience this would lead to the absurdity of thinking theism may be supported evidentially by religious experience. In response, it is argued that there are many truths (about logic and mathematics) and practices (such as science itself) that are not intelligible if there are no objective, normative truths and that objective moral truths are no more dispensable or odd than epistemic norms. It is further argued that Irwin's account of the evolution of morality is not able to escape presupposing objective moral facts (about harm and benefaction). Finally, the appeal to moral and religious experience is defended in making the case for moral realism and theism.
Authors and Affiliations
Charles Taliaferro
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP195097
- DOI 10.12775/SetF.2016.003
- Views 63
- Downloads 0
La teología como posibilidad fundante de una ciencia más humana
Paul Karl Feyerabend conceives religion as a possible way to infuse meaning and humanity to the science. He asserts that when it has taken place historically a unity between science and religion, science has been able to...
Soul, mind – brain, body – what makes us the same?
The question whether I am the same person at different moments has brought many difficulties for a long time. The problem with identity of things through time was already known in the ancient times especially when Plutar...
La evolución, entre ciencia, razón y fe
Evolution: Between Science, Reason, and Faith Evolution is a topic of interest to science, philosophy and Christian theology. We look for the points of dialogue. We will follow this outline: 1. An introduction where we...
La astronomía de Ptolomeo y el caso Galileo: dos aportes histórico-epistemológicos
Ptolemy´s astronomy and the Galileo case: two historical and epistemological considerations The Galileo case is the most famous example of the encounter betwen science and Faith. The debate was centered, among others, i...
Méta-theologie analytique
Analytic meta-theology What is analytic theology? How should we go about doing analytic theology and what can we expect from? These questions seem to be today´s challenge for analytic theology. These questions will be a...