Philosophy Cafe: Are there any correct moral answers?

Are there any correct moral answers?

Let’s start a careful analysis from the end of the sentence above…

• The sentence is a question. So, it is looking for an answer.
• The search for answers implies moral questions.
• What might those questions be?
• What is morality?
• What would it be for the answer to a moral question to be correct?
• What makes answers to questions correct in general?
• This is referring to the ‘existence’ of such answers.
• What does ‘existence’ mean in this context?

And finally, how would one know when one has correctly answered the question:

• How does one know when one has answered any question correctly?
• Some more things to think about…

Different assumptions about the possibility of knowledge of morality lead to…

• Moral Naturalism: moral claims can be understood with reference to empirical facts
• Moral Rationalism: moral claims can be understood without reference to empirical facts
• Moral Non-cognitivism: moral claims are not the type of claims that are true (or false)

Different assumptions about the metaphysical status of morality lead to…

• Moral Realism: affirms the real existence of ethical properties.
• Moral Subjectivism: denies the real existence of ethical properties.
• Reference: Metaethical positions taken from the ‘ethics’ entry in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy.