An appraisal of moral realism

Abstract

The objective of many ethical theories is to provide guidelines which will help human beings to make moral decisions. Some of these theories which attempt to provide norms of conduct include deontologism, consequentialism and virtue theories. But beyond the interest in good moral conduct is also an interest in knowing whether the moral decisions which we make are true or false. Surely, it makes sense to ask whether moral statements are true or false. Those who are interested in unraveling this issue must ask themselves whether moral concepts or issues can be regarded as “facts” in the sense that they can be shown to be either true or false when they occur in propositions. Moral realism is a meta-ethical theory which is not focused on providing rules of conduct but with the truth or falsity of moral statements. I shall argue that the concern with the truth-value of moral statements, as being objective in nature, is not without some problems. This is without prejudice to some of the benefits of the theory.

Keywords: Moral; Realism; Deontologism, Virtue Consequentialism; Ethica, Objectivism