Moral realism and the sceptical arguments from disagreement and queerness

Abstract

In “ethics” Mackie claims that the falsity of moral realism is the best explanation of the nature of moral disagreement and that moral realism is both metaphysically and epistemologically queer. However, neither claim is compelling. A coherentist epistemology allows the realist to avoid the charge of epistemological queerness. Moreover, genuine moral disputes are in principle resolvable upon the basis of coherentist reasoning. Moral realism is not metaphysically queer, since moral facts can supervene upon nonmoral, e.g., physical, facts.