Ethics teachers report that their classes consist almost entirely of relativists, and they have to start the course by putting a preliminary case for realism , just to get the students to realise there is more than one option.
Yes, and, in addition to that, the best current studies on how nonphilosophers think about these issues find that across a variety of paradigms, respondents in the US tended to favor antirealism at a ratio of about 3:1, with most endorsing some type of relativism. See Pölzler and Wright (2020). In other words, when given the option to endorse a variety of metaethical positions, about 75% of the respondents in this study favored some type of antirealiasm.
Note that P&W’s studies relied on online samples from a population that is disproportionately nonreligious, and student samples, which are disproportionately more inclined towards relativism (see Beebe & Sackris, 2016), so they are probably not representative of the United States population as a whole.
References
Beebe, J. R., & Sackris, D. (2016). Moral objectivism across the lifespan. Philosophical Psychology, 29(6), 912-929.
Pölzler, T., & Wright, J. C. (2020). Anti-realist pluralism: A new approach to folk metaethics. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 11(1), 53-82.
Ethics teachers report that their classes consist almost entirely of relativists, and they have to start the course by putting a preliminary case for realism , just to get the students to realise there is more than one option.
Yes, and, in addition to that, the best current studies on how nonphilosophers think about these issues find that across a variety of paradigms, respondents in the US tended to favor antirealism at a ratio of about 3:1, with most endorsing some type of relativism. See Pölzler and Wright (2020). In other words, when given the option to endorse a variety of metaethical positions, about 75% of the respondents in this study favored some type of antirealiasm.
Note that P&W’s studies relied on online samples from a population that is disproportionately nonreligious, and student samples, which are disproportionately more inclined towards relativism (see Beebe & Sackris, 2016), so they are probably not representative of the United States population as a whole.
References
Beebe, J. R., & Sackris, D. (2016). Moral objectivism across the lifespan. Philosophical Psychology, 29(6), 912-929.
Pölzler, T., & Wright, J. C. (2020). Anti-realist pluralism: A new approach to folk metaethics. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 11(1), 53-82.