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Moral underdetermination and a new skeptical challenge.

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A new skeptical argument from moral underdetermination challenges moral realism. Despite agreement on moral verdicts, differing justifications highlight a gap analogous to scientific underdetermination, questioning the basis of moral knowledge.

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Area of Science:

  • Moral Philosophy
  • Meta-ethics
  • Philosophy of Science

Background:

  • Recent work in normative ethics suggests convergence among major traditions on correct moral judgments.
  • However, disagreements persist regarding the underlying reasons or justifications for these moral verdicts.
  • This mirrors the philosophical concept of 'underdetermination of theory by evidence' in the philosophy of science.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To introduce a novel skeptical challenge to moral realism termed the 'skeptical argument from moral underdetermination'.
  • To adapt the underdetermination principle from philosophy of science to the domain of moral theory.
  • To propose a formal structure for this new moral skeptical argument and defend its plausibility.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of recent projects in normative ethics (e.g., Parfit, consequentializers).
  • Application of the underdetermination of theory by evidence concept from philosophy of science.
  • Construction and defense of a formal skeptical argument against moral realism.

Main Results:

  • Identified a significant disagreement in the justification of moral verdicts across normative traditions, despite agreement on the verdicts themselves.
  • Established an analogy between this moral disagreement and the underdetermination problem in scientific realism.
  • Proposed a formal skeptical argument from moral underdetermination and defended it against objections.

Conclusions:

  • The underdetermination of moral theory by evidence poses a substantial skeptical challenge to moral realism.
  • The proposed skeptical argument is at least as plausible as its scientific realism counterpart.
  • This argument necessitates a re-evaluation of the foundations of moral knowledge and moral realism.