Can We Believe the Error Theory?

Journal of Philosophy 110 (4):194-212 (2013)
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Abstract

According to the error theory, normative judgements are beliefs that ascribe normative properties, even though such properties do not exist. In this paper, I argue that we cannot believe the error theory, and that this means that there is no reason for us to believe this theory. It may be thought that this is a problem for the error theory, but I argue that it is not. Instead, I argue, our inability to believe the error theory undermines many objections that have been made to this theory.

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Bart Streumer
University of Groningen

Citations of this work

Moral Error Theory: History, Critique, Defence.Jonas Olson - 2014 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Against the Taking Condition.Conor McHugh & Jonathan Way - 2016 - Philosophical Issues 26 (1):314-331.
Metaepistemology.J. Adam Carter & Ernest Sosa - 2022 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
If Nothing Matters.Guy Kahane - 2017 - Noûs 51 (2):327-353.

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References found in this work

In defence of error theory.Chris Daly & David Liggins - 2010 - Philosophical Studies 149 (2):209-230.
In defense of moral error theory.Jonas Olson - 2010 - In Michael S. Brady, New Waves in Metaethics. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
Truth in ethics.Crispin Wright - 1995 - Ratio 8 (3):209-226.
Moorean Arguments and Moral Revisionism.Tristram McPherson - 2009 - Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (2):1-25.
Reasons and impossibility.Ulrike Heuer - 2010 - Philosophical Studies 147 (2):235 - 246.

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