Quick questions on Metaethics, Moral Realism and Relativism - TCE Philosophy (Tasmania)

Moral realists hold that some moral claims are objectively true, true independently of what anyone thinks. On this view, the wrongness of torturing an innocent for fun is a fact, much as the roundness of the earth is a fact. Realists point to the apparent objectivity of moral discourse: we argue about morality, take ourselves to discover moral truths, and think people can be mistaken. Some realists, like the moral naturalists, identify moral properties with natural ones such as wellbeing; others, following G.

Moral relativism holds that the truth of moral claims is relative to a framework, usually a culture. What is right in one society may be wrong in another, with no neutral standpoint to judge between them. The main evidence is the diversity of moral codes across history and cultures. Relativism promotes tolerance and humility, but faces a serious objection: it seems to make moral reform impossible, since reformers like the abolitionists were, by their own society's standards, simply wrong.