Some Consequences of Moral Realism

Abstract

In the previous chapter I indicated my reasons for my belief in moral (normative) realism. We have already seen that if moral realism is true, and, if there are some moral (normative) facts that have moral explanations, then there exist objective moral reasons. I will here defend some claims in addition to this one. One of them is that the moral nihilist doesn’t have access to moral reasons. This is perhaps not a very surprising consequence of moral nihilism. We have seen that it follows already from nihilism with respect to moral principles (particularism). Another consequence is that, somewhat more unexpectedly, the same goes for the moral naturalist. Finally I will discuss whether the notion of an objective moral reason, which I have defended, could help us to answer what Christine Korsgaard has called the normative question. I will argue that it can.