ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the function of moral discourse as a motivation for moral contextualism and considers whether epistemic contextualism might be similarly motivated. It also considers whether the semantics of epistemic and moral expressions might have any implications for the nature of knowledge and morality. The semantics for moral contextualism is analogous to that for epistemic contextualism. The chapter also focuses on the main arguments that have been advanced in favor of moral and epistemic contextualism, specifically retraction arguments and arguments from disagreement. It explains the retraction arguments for 'wrong' and explores how retraction cases involving moral expressions differ from those involving 'know'. As for the case of 'know', retraction arguments also provide fairly good evidence in favor of a relativistic semantics or a non-indexical contextualist semantics for moral expressions. In the moral case, the retraction is prompted by a change of moral attitudes.
