If that philosopher believes that statements like “murder is wrong” are true, then they are indeed a realist. Did I say something that looked like I would disagree?
You guys are talking past each other, because you mean something different by ‘compelling’. I think Tim means that X is compelling to all human beings if any human being will accept X under ideal epistemic circumstances. You seem to take ‘X is universally compelling’ to mean that all human beings already do accept X, or would on a first hearing.
Would agree that all human beings would accept all true statements under ideal epistemic circumstances (i.e. having heard all the arguments, seen all the evidence, in the best state of mind)?
I guess I must clarify. When I say ‘compelling’ here I am really talking mainly about motivational compellingness. Saying “if you drink-drive, you could kill someone!” to a human is generally, motivationally compelling as an argument for not drink-driving: because humans don’t like killing people, a human will decide not to drink-drive (one in a rational state of mind, anyway).
This is distinct from accepting statements as true or false! Any rational agent, give or take a few, will presumably believe you about the causal relationship between drink-driving and manslaughter once presented with sufficient evidence. But it is a tiny subset of these who will change their decisions on this basis. A mind that doesn’t care whether it kills people will see this information as an irrelevant curiosity.
So, a philosopher who says:
is not a moral realist? Because that philosopher does not seem to be a subjectivist, an error theorist, or non-cognitivist.
If that philosopher believes that statements like “murder is wrong” are true, then they are indeed a realist. Did I say something that looked like I would disagree?
You guys are talking past each other, because you mean something different by ‘compelling’. I think Tim means that X is compelling to all human beings if any human being will accept X under ideal epistemic circumstances. You seem to take ‘X is universally compelling’ to mean that all human beings already do accept X, or would on a first hearing.
Would agree that all human beings would accept all true statements under ideal epistemic circumstances (i.e. having heard all the arguments, seen all the evidence, in the best state of mind)?
I guess I must clarify. When I say ‘compelling’ here I am really talking mainly about motivational compellingness. Saying “if you drink-drive, you could kill someone!” to a human is generally, motivationally compelling as an argument for not drink-driving: because humans don’t like killing people, a human will decide not to drink-drive (one in a rational state of mind, anyway).
This is distinct from accepting statements as true or false! Any rational agent, give or take a few, will presumably believe you about the causal relationship between drink-driving and manslaughter once presented with sufficient evidence. But it is a tiny subset of these who will change their decisions on this basis. A mind that doesn’t care whether it kills people will see this information as an irrelevant curiosity.