Mackie's Error Theory - Is Morality a Total Sham?

Error theory is a view that's skeptical about morality. It claims that people are systematically in error when they make moral judgments. You might think you know that genocide is morally wrong, but for J.L. Mackie you don't know this. There are no objective moral values or properties for your judgment to latch onto. Morality is something like a useful delusion. In this post, I explain big ideas in Mackie's Error Theory. Do you know that genocide is morally wrong? Seems obvious you know it, right. Well, maybe not. Knowing something requires that thing being true. What you believe must correspond to reality. But if there’s nothing in objective reality for that belief to correspond to, it isn’t true. And if it isn’t true, you don’t know it. You don’t actually know that genocide is morally wrong. By the end of this post, you’ll understand how philosopher J.L. Mackie reaches the shocking claim that there’s no moral knowledge. Error theory is a theory that embraces moral anti-realism. Anti-

Error theory is a view that's skeptical about morality. It claims that people are systematically in error when they make moral judgments. You might think you know that genocide is morally wrong, but for J.L. Mackie you don't know this. There are no objective moral values or properties for your judgment to latch onto. Morality is something like a useful delusion. In this post, I explain big ideas in Mackie's Error Theory. Do you know that genocide is morally wrong? Seems obvious you know it, right. Well, maybe not. Knowing something requires that thing being true. What you believe must correspo