An Ontological Proof of Moral Realism - by Michael Huemer

Ten years ago, I proved the truth of moral realism. It was in the article, “An Ontological Proof of Moral Realism” (Social Philosophy & Policy 30 (2013): 259-79). Following is a summary. Background: One version of the “ontological argument” for God’s existence claims that, given that it is possible that God exists, God must actually exist. This argument is very bad. However, there is an ontological argument for moral realism that is good — that is, an argument to the effect that, given that moral realism might be true, it is actually true. Moral realism: The thesis that there are some objective moral reasons. That is, there are some reasons for action that are categorical (not based on the agent’s desires), non-selfish (not based on the agent’s interests), and objective (independent of the attitudes of observers towards the action). I promise you’ll get an argument for moral realism, later. But first, I’d like to give an argument against torturing babies just for fun. 1. There is s

Ten years ago, I proved the truth of moral realism. It was in the article, “An Ontological Proof of Moral Realism” (Social Philosophy & Policy 30 (2013): 259-79). Following is a summary. Background: One version of the “ontological argument” for God’s existence claims that, given that it is possible that God exists, God must actually exist. This argument is very bad. However, there is an ontological argument for moral realism that is good — that is, an argument to the effect that, given that moral realism might be true, it is actually true. Moral realism: The thesis that there are some objectiv