Abstract

Reductive Realism in ethics is the view that it is possible to locate morality in the world as science and experience reveal it to us. Many opponents of Reductive Realism forcefully complain that the view fails to take morality seriously. I develop responses to several versions of this kind of criticism. Taking inspiration from well-developed debates about the nature of phenomenal consciousness in the philosophy of mind, I suggest that the apparent failure of Reductive Realism to respect the significance of morality stems not from the distinctive nature of morality, itself, but rather from our failure to appreciate the distinctive nature of the concepts that we use in thinking about morality.