COMM 2273 Lecture Notes - Lecture 76: Formal Proof, Derek Parfit

• School: University of Arkansas-Monticello
• Department: Communication
• Course: COMM 2273
• Professor: Key

Document Summary

Disagreement doesn"t mean you reject the ac"s ethical theory because it doesn"t disprove objective truth. Even if it did, subjectively proving the resolution true would be sufficient. The relativistic view that moral judgments are culturally grounded endorses the first argument just set out, based on the premise that those judgments are not rooted in the basic sources of knowledge, but not the second, attitudinal argument. Still, we are at best entitled to assert them within our society (or one that morally agrees with it), and they are at best true for one or another [our] society. They are not unqualifiedly true, hence not genuinely known in the sense that implies cross-culturally valid standards of evidence. [but] if they express propositions, those propositions are assertable in our culture, but not unqualifiedly true. And even if propositions have to be universally true, we can still call ourselves epistemically lucky. I"m not sure what parfit has in mind here.