ABSTRACT
Thirty-seven or so years ago, John McDowell and Simon Blackburn had a classic exchange in which they discussed the significance of the later Wittgenstein’s writings on following a rule for the debate in meta-ethics between moral realism and non-cognitivism. Building on previous work (Contemporary Metaethics: An Introduction, second edition, Chapter 10), this chapter revisits this exchange and re-assesses the significance of Wittgenstein’s rule-following considerations for the debate between moral realism and non-cognitivism. It concludes that the rule-following considerations pose no threat to non-cognitivism if it is pursued in a methodologically naturalist, explanatory spirit. Inter alia, it considers some recent work related to the issue by Simon Kirchin and Debbie Roberts.
