Essays on Moral Realism

342 Pages·1988·19.346 MB·English

by  Geoffrey Sayre-McCord

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ESSAYS ON
MORAL REALISM

ESSAYS ON
MORAL REALISM
EDITED BY
Geoffrey Sayre-McCord
Cornell University Press
ITHACA AND LONDON
Copyright © 1988 by Cornell University
Introduction copyright © 1988 by Geoffrey Sayre-McCord
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must
not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For
information, address Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts Place, Ithaca, New York
14850.
First published 1988 by Cornell University Press.
International Standard Book Number (cloth) 0-8014-2240-X
International Standard Book Number (paper) 0-8014-9541-5
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 88-47753
Printed in the United States of America
Librarians: Library of Congress cataloging information
appears on the last page of the book.
The paper in this book is acid-free and meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines
for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Contents
Contributors vii
Preface ix
•Introduction: The Many Moral Realisms I
Geoffrey Sayre-McCord
I MORAL ANTI-REALISM
• i Critique of Ethics and Theology 27
A. J. Ayer
• 2 Ethical Consistency 41
Bernard Williams
3 Supervenience Revisited 59
Simon Blackburn
4 Ethics, Mathematics, and Relativism 76
Jonathan Lear
5 The Subjectivity of Values 95
J. L. Mackie
6 Ethics and Observation 119
Gilbert Harman
II MORALREALISM
7 Truth, Invention, and the Meaning of Life 127
David Wiggins
[V]
Contents
* 8 Values and Secondary Qualities 166
John McDowell
9 How to Be a Moral Realist 181
Richard N. Boyd
io Moral Explanations 229
Nicholas L. Sturgeon
• 11 Moral Theory and Explanatory Impotence 256
Geoffrey Sayre-McCord
12 Moral Reality 282
Mark Platts
Bibliography 301
Index 309
[Vi]