Rational learners and metaethics: Universalism, relativism, and evidence from consensus

Mind and Language 35 (1):67-89 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Recent work in folk metaethics finds a correlation between perceived consensus about a moral claim and meta-ethical judgments about whether the claim is universally or only relatively true. We argue that consensus can provide evidence for meta-normative claims, such as whether a claim is universally true. We then report several experiments indicating that people use consensus to make inferences about whether a claim is universally true. This suggests that people's beliefs about relativism and universalism are partly guided by evidence-based reasoning. In a final study, we show that the rejection of universalism does not generate a simple subjectivism but is associated with a more moderate relativism on which highly atypical positions are regarded as mistaken.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,449

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

From punishment to universalism.David Rose & Shaun Nichols - 2018 - Mind and Language 34 (1):59-72.
Modern Moral Relativism.Christian Miller - 2018 - In Todd K. Shackelford & Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford, Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer Verlag.
The meta-wisdom of crowds.Justin Sytsma, Ryan Muldoon & Shaun Nichols - 2021 - Synthese 199 (3-4):11051-11074.
Truth relativism in metaethics.Patrick Denning - 2022 - Dissertation, University of Edinburgh
Moral Relativism and Moral Psychology.Christian B. Miller - 2010 - In Steven D. Hales, A Companion to Relativism. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 346–367.
Moral relativism.Christopher Gowans - 2015 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
On Rawls' Justification Procedure.Richard A. O'Neil - 1976 - Philosophy Research Archives 2:196-209.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-04-06

Downloads
130 (#173,394)

6 months
10 (#281,857)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Alisabeth Ayars
University of British Columbia
Shaun Nichols
Cornell University

References found in this work

The moral problem.Michael R. Smith - 1994 - Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell.
The emotional construction of morals.Jesse Prinz - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The Myth of Morality.Richard Joyce - 2001 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
From Metaphysics to Ethics: A Defence of Conceptual Analysis.Frank Jackson - 1999 - Philosophical Quarterly 49 (197):539-542.

View all 40 references / Add more references