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Robust normativity and the argument from weirdness: revisiting Mackie’s critique
Umeå University, Faculty of Arts, Department of historical, philosophical and religious studies.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7842-0900
2025 (English)In: Journal of Moral Philosophy, ISSN 1740-4681, E-ISSN 1745-5243, Vol. 22, p. 283-313Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

J. L. Mackie argued that moral thought and discourse involve commitment to an especially robust kind of normativity, which is too weird to exist. Thus, he concluded that moral thought and discourse involve systematic error. Much has been said about this argument in the last four decades or so. Nevertheless, at least one version of Mackie’s argument, specifically the one focusing on the intrinsic weirdness of the relevant kind of normativity, has not been fully unpacked. Thus, more needs to be said about the issue of how to interpret Mackie’s argument. Moreover, I argue that by looking closely at Mackie’s discussion, we can extract two distinct versions of the argument which together present a tougher, and also more precise, challenge for moral realism than extant versions. In this paper I thus revisit Mackie’s discussion with an eye to making progress on an important issue in contemporary metaethics.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Brill Academic Publishers, 2025. Vol. 22, p. 283-313
Keywords [en]
argument from weirdness, J. L. Mackie, objectivity, overridingness, robust normativity, unintelligibility
National Category
Philosophy Ethics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-218619DOI: 10.1163/17455243-21010014ISI: 001561888400001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85181230909OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-218619DiVA, id: diva2:1822549
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2019-02828Available from: 2023-12-23 Created: 2023-12-23 Last updated: 2026-03-30Bibliographically approved

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Moberger, Victor

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