Also, just regarding “of course, [moral uncertainty] is (so far, in the sequence) an unexplained [concept]”:
The later posts will further flesh out the concept, provide more examples, etc. But as far as I can tell, there unfortunately isn’t just one neat, simple explanation of the concept that everyone will agree to, that will make self-evident all the important points, and that won’t just rely on other terms that need explaining too. This is partly because the term is used in different ways by different people, and partly because the concept obviously involves morality and thus can’t be fully disentangled from various meta-ethical quagmires.
This is part of why I try to explain the term from multiple angles, using multiple examples, contrasting it with other terms, etc., rather than just being able to say “Moral uncertainty is...”, list four criteria, explain those, and be done with it (or something like that).
But if part of your feelings are premised on being suspicious of non-naturalistic moral realism, then perhaps the post you’ll find most useful will be the one on what moral uncertainty can mean for antirealists and subjectivists, which should hopefully be out early next week.
(I guess one way of putting this is that the explanation will unfold gradually, and really we’re talking about something a bit more like a cluster of related ideas rather than one neat simple crisp thing—it’s not that I’ve been holding the explanation of that one neat simple crisp thing back from readers so far!)
But if part of your feelings are premised on being suspicious of non-naturalistic moral realism, then perhaps the post you’ll find most useful will be the one on what moral uncertainty can mean for antirealists and subjectivists, which should hopefully be out early next week.
That’s certainly a big part of it (see my reply to sibling comment for more). It’s not all of it, though. I listed some questions in my initial comment asking for an explanation of what moral realism is; I’ll want to revisit them (as well as a couple of others that’ve occurred to me), once the entire sequence (or, at least, this upcoming post you mention) is posted.
(I guess one way of putting this is that the explanation will unfold gradually, and really we’re talking about something a bit more like a cluster of related ideas rather than one neat simple crisp thing—it’s not that I’ve been holding the explanation of that one neat simple crisp thing back from readers so far!)
Certainly understandable.
Although—if, indeed, the term is used in different ways by different people (as seems likely enough), then perhaps it might make sense, instead of trying to explain “moral uncertainty”, rather to clearly separate the concepts labeled by this term into distinct buckets, and explain them separately.
Then again, it’s hard for me to judge any of these explanations too confidently, given, as you say, the “unfolding” dynamic… we will see, I suppose, what I think of the whole thing, when it’s all posted!
Also, just regarding “of course, [moral uncertainty] is (so far, in the sequence) an unexplained [concept]”:
The later posts will further flesh out the concept, provide more examples, etc. But as far as I can tell, there unfortunately isn’t just one neat, simple explanation of the concept that everyone will agree to, that will make self-evident all the important points, and that won’t just rely on other terms that need explaining too. This is partly because the term is used in different ways by different people, and partly because the concept obviously involves morality and thus can’t be fully disentangled from various meta-ethical quagmires.
This is part of why I try to explain the term from multiple angles, using multiple examples, contrasting it with other terms, etc., rather than just being able to say “Moral uncertainty is...”, list four criteria, explain those, and be done with it (or something like that).
But if part of your feelings are premised on being suspicious of non-naturalistic moral realism, then perhaps the post you’ll find most useful will be the one on what moral uncertainty can mean for antirealists and subjectivists, which should hopefully be out early next week.
(I guess one way of putting this is that the explanation will unfold gradually, and really we’re talking about something a bit more like a cluster of related ideas rather than one neat simple crisp thing—it’s not that I’ve been holding the explanation of that one neat simple crisp thing back from readers so far!)
That’s certainly a big part of it (see my reply to sibling comment for more). It’s not all of it, though. I listed some questions in my initial comment asking for an explanation of what moral realism is; I’ll want to revisit them (as well as a couple of others that’ve occurred to me), once the entire sequence (or, at least, this upcoming post you mention) is posted.
Certainly understandable.
Although—if, indeed, the term is used in different ways by different people (as seems likely enough), then perhaps it might make sense, instead of trying to explain “moral uncertainty”, rather to clearly separate the concepts labeled by this term into distinct buckets, and explain them separately.
Then again, it’s hard for me to judge any of these explanations too confidently, given, as you say, the “unfolding” dynamic… we will see, I suppose, what I think of the whole thing, when it’s all posted!