ABSTRACT
In our everyday lives we make moral judgments, i.e. thoughts we might express with statements like ‘What you did was very kind’, ‘Pol Pot was an evil man’ or ‘We have a moral obligation to help those in need’. Philosophers who work on ethics also make moral judgments, but often somewhat more abstractly. They say things like ‘An action is right just in case it maximizes overall happiness’, or ‘One ought to always act for reasons that one could consistently allow everyone else to act for as well’. This chapter is about the status of these judgments and the distinctively human practice of which they are a part. That is, it’s about the status of morality. This is not a question of whether particular moral judgments, whether
everyday or abstract, are correct. Rather, it’s about what we’re doing when we make moral judgments. Are our moral judgments attempts to represent objective matters of fact? Or, are they implicitly relative to our particular cultural situation? Do our moral statements attempt to track features of the world around us? Or, do they express emotive reactions to the value-free world as we take it to be? Nevertheless, for the sake of concreteness I will use some examples of moral judgments, and I have purposefully chosen examples that are somewhat controversial. This is not because I want to endorse (or deny) these moral judgments here but because I hope their controversial nature helps you to see the importance and difficulty in understanding the status of morality. First, we’ll explore the question about the status of morality in a
little more detail, in order to try to understand what is being asked and why it is fundamental for the philosophical study of ethics. Then, we’ll learn about three basic approaches philosophers have taken to the issue: objectivism, relativism and emotivism. Next, we’ll briefly consider
some of the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, with the hope of helping you to start thinking about which kind of view you might favour and how you might argue for it. Finally, I’ll seek to point you in the direction of further things to think about and read regarding the status of morality.
