Dear all, Metaethics reading group will be on again this coming Monday (the 19th). It will take place at the usual time of 6 pm in the philosophy common room, Sydney University.
We will be looking at James Dreier, 'The Supervenience Argument Against Moral Realism': Introduction: In 1971, Simon Blackburn worked out an argument against moral realism appealing to the supervenience of the moral realm on the natural realm. He has since revised the argument, in part to take account of objections, but the basic structure remains intact. While commentators seem to agree that the argument is not successful, they have not agreed upon what goes wrong. I believe this is because no attempt has been made to see what happens when Blackburn's argument is addressed to particular varieties of moral realism. As I see it, we must look to these various brands if we want to understand just where the concept of supervenience can be usefully employed. In the first part of this paper, I set up the argument and apply it to an array of realisms, arguing that it is not generally persuasive as a refutation of these. In the second part, I provide an alternative conception of the semantics of moral expressions, anti-realist in spirit, arguing by analogy that it is an appropriate solution to the puzzles raised by the supervenience of the moral on the natural. Hope to see you there! If you would like a copy of this paper, please don't hesitate to email me at [email protected] Regards, Emma Wood
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