ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the implications of the metaphysics of realism for other aspects of moral theory. It also argues that the theory not only requires the rejection of deliberative determinism, but also has implications for most other key ethical concepts, including those of moral responsibility, moral powers, moral rights and moral obligations. One who accepts scientific realism as a first philosophy cannot plausibly accept that it is rational or long-term self-interest, belief in a set of commands given to us by a god, or the desire to live one's life by the natural light of reason. The most fundamental problem of moral theory is how to deal with the most powerful, and potentially some of the most constructive and destructive social agents in the modern world. Moreover, they are not the only such agents that have been ignored in mainstream ethics.
