Today I want to talk to you about a topic
in moral philosophy that I call the status of morality.
What is morality? Well that's a really big question.
today what we'll focus on is
particular moral judgments and ask about their status.
What do I mean about particular moral judgments?
Well, I have in, in mind the everyday, day sort of judgments that we make
when we think something like what Pol
Pot did and the genocide was morally abhorrent.
Or giving to charity is a good thing to do.
but also the kind of moral judgments that ethical philosophers make.
They make judgments that are a little bit more abstract.
They say things
like, an action is right insofar as it
maximizes overall happiness, or one ought to always
act in a way that one could will one's reason to be reasons for everyone else.
these are very abstract moral judgments made in ethical theory.
we have the particular moral judgments made in every day life.
Today, we won't be asking whether these are correct.
whether specific moral judgments or abstract moral
judgments are correct or incorrect.
Rather, we will be asking the status of these judgments.
What are we doing when we make such judgments?
Are we representing objective facts of matter?
Or are we describing our personal or cultural practices?