PHL275H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Normative Ethics, Moral Nihilism, Motivation
Document Summary
Mackie"s arguments for his error theory" & nagel"s response. Question: what exactly is thomas nagel"s response to the argument from queerness (afq): his approach at rst seems like its question-begging. First, nagel misses mackie"s speci c worry of objective prescriptivity", particularly the prescriptivity: he doesn"t consider mackie"s speci c concern about the combination of the objectivity and intrinsic motivation of moral judgments. If someone is suffering from pain, that suffering is a valid enough reason to aid said someone or make it objectively true that help should be provided to the someone. However, the latter is just as queer because it involves objective prescriptivity just as much as the former since the latter is supposed to be both objectively true and intrinsically motivating. In the reading, there is a footnote where mackie makes his response to nagel. Certain reasons" is in and out of itself a normative claim.
