What is moral nihilism and does it claim morality exists?
Moral nihilism asserts that nothing is morally right or wrong and that morality does not exist. This view rejects the existence of objective moral properties anywhere in reality.
Moral nihilism asserts that nothing is morally right or wrong and that morality does not exist. This view rejects the existence of objective moral properties anywhere in reality.
J.L. Mackie developed error theory in his 1977 book Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong. He argued that ordinary moral judgments systematically misrepresent reality because no such objective properties exist.
Axel Hägerström prefigured this view in 1911 with similar skepticism about moral objectivity. The error theorist holds that all sincere moral judgments try but always fail to describe moral features of things.
Richard Joyce proposed fictionalism as an alternative framework where moral assertions are neither true nor false due to presupposition failure. The distinction lies in how each treats the falsity of moral claims while acknowledging they lack truth conditions.
King I and King M published Ethical Truth in Light of Quantum Mechanics in Philosophy Now Issue 156 during June and July 2023. They argue quantum mechanics provides responses to both epistemological and meta-ethical puzzles raised by Mackie.