Could Morality Have a Source?

Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 6 (2):1-19 (2012)
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Abstract

It is a common idea that morality, or moral truths, if there are any, must have some sort of source, or grounding. It has also been claimed that constructivist theories in metaethics have an advantage over realist theories in that the former but not the latter can provide such a grounding. This paper has two goals. First, it attempts to show that constructivism does not in fact provide a complete grounding for morality, and so is on a par with realism in this respect. Second, it explains why it seems that morality in fact couldn't have a source.

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Chris Heathwood
University of Colorado, Boulder

Citations of this work

The Metaphysics of Moral Explanations.Daniel Fogal & Olle Risberg - 2020 - Oxford Studies in Metaethics 15.
Grounding and Normative Explanation.Pekka Väyrynen - 2013 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 87 (1):155-178.
The Metaphysics of Moral Explanations.Daniel Fogal & Olle Risberg - 2020 - In Russ Shafer-Landau, Oxford Studies in Metaethics Volume 15. Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press. pp. 170-194.
Theological voluntarism.Mark Murphy - 2025 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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References found in this work

Slaves of the passions.Mark Schroeder - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Moral realism: a defence.Russ Shafer-Landau - 2003 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The sources of normativity.Christine Marion Korsgaard - 1996 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Onora O'Neill.
Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics.David Owen Brink - 1989 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ethical Intuitionism.Michael Huemer - 2005 - New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

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