What is the difference between a moral realist and a moral anti-realist?

Thesis

This paper addresses the question of how to distinguish moral realism from moral anti-realism. An influential view, prevalent primarily due to the work of Michael Dummett, appeals to semantic features of realism such as truth, bivalence, and surface form. However, minimalist accounts enable an anti-realist to appropriate any such semantic feature. The semantic characterisation is thus unable to distinguish adequately between moral realists and moral anti-realists. This is the problem of Creep...

Expand abstract

Authors: Clark, W; William Clark

• Publication date: 2013
• Type of award: BPhil
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: realism; creeping minimalism; Michael Dummett; anti-realism
• Subjects: Modern Western philosophy; Philosophy; Ethics (Moral philosophy)