#646 Russ Shafer-Landau: Metaethics, and Moral Realism
RECORDED ON APRIL 7th 2022.
Dr. Russ Shafer-Landau is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His primary interest is in ethics. He is the author of Moral Realism: A Defence (Oxford 2003), Whatever Happened to Good and Evil? (Oxford 2004), and The Fundamentals of Ethics (Oxford 2010). He is the editor of Oxford Studies in Metaethics, and is the founder and organizer of the annual Madison Metaethics Workshop (MadMeta). He is also the director of the Marc Sanders Prize in Metaethics.
In this episode, we talk about metaethics, and moral realism. We ask what is metaethics, and define moral realism. We go through several challenges to moral realism, like evolutionary debunking arguments, apparent moral variation across cultures, moral foundations theory, and arguments from disagreement. We discuss if and how we can know that an epistemological approach is the best one out there. Finally, we talk about where moral beliefs come from, and the implications that might have for how moral philosophers do their work.
Time Links:
Intro
What is metaethics?
Moral realism
Evolutionary debunking arguments
Moral variation, anthropology, and moral foundations theory
Arguments from disagreement
How to know what is the best epistemological approach
Where moral beliefs come from, and implications for moral philosophers
Post-hoc rationalization
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Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3pKILpx
PhilPeople profile: https://bit.ly/32FP4ly
Amazon page: https://amzn.to/3mQMwIi