Abstract

This chapter shows how moral knowledge is possible according to Compassionate Moral Realism, and how that view is able to sidestep the two most influential worries about moral realism’s ability to account for moral knowledge. First, an analogous case of knowledge is considered: knowing that two color experiences are similar in comparison to some third. The latter form of knowledge is hard to deny, and can be naturally explained in terms of a conceptual analysis of comparative similarity and reflection on conscious experiences. A parallel explanation, it is argued, can be given of moral knowledge of the badness of pain according to Compassionate Moral Realism. It is then shown that this explanation is not threated by considerations concerning the evolution of our capacities and concerning moral disagreement—in part because of the view’s compatibility with judgment pluralism.