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Writer's pictureBen Clark

Moral Realism

Moral Realism is the view 'that there exist such things as moral facts and moral values, and that these are objective and independent of our perception of them or our beliefs, feelings or other attitudes towards them. Therefore, moral judgments describe moral facts, which are as certain in their own way as mathematical facts.' (https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_moral_realism.html).


For example a Moral Realist may hold that 'It is always wrong to kill' and would consider this a moral fact. The statement 'It is wrong to kill' holds in all times, places, circumstances etc. Note though, that Moral Realists disagree about which particular things are moral facts, e.g. some might believe that 'it is wrong to lie' is a moral fact whilst others might say that it is not.


It is also possible that there can be more nuance in moral realism, for example in allowing not to be immoral to kill someone in certain circumstances, for example if someone attacked you with a view to killing you. This video explains moral realism, but distinguishes it from 'moral universalism:




There's an interesting video on moral realism here, you can get the idea of it from the first part and sign-up for a trial period if you want to watch the rest:


More on metaethics here:



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