ABSTRACT

In Chapter 4, I tried to show what morality is (and is not). I claimed that it is a creation of humans but of no individual human, and that the discursive ingredients of commonsense morality are, in essence, the basis of more traditional metaethics. The problem that this gave me was one of how to account for moral dissent and the possibility of critique of any notional moral system. Allowing that the terrorist or Nazi might somehow have come up with a moral discourse that was at least coherent, what – if anything – might we say in response?