Noûs 51 (2):327-353 (2017)
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Abstract |
The possibility that nothing really matters can cause much anxiety, but what would it mean for that to be true? Since it couldn’t be bad that nothing matters, fearing nihilism makes little sense. However, the consequences of belief in nihilism will be far more dramatic than often thought. Many metaethicists assume that even if nothing matters, we should, and would, go on more or less as before. But if nihilism is true in an unqualified way, it can’t be the case that we should go on as before. And given some plausible assumptions about our psychology, it’s also unlikely that we would go on as before: belief in nihilism will lead to loss of evaluative belief, and that will lead to loss or deflation of our corresponding subjective concerns. Now if nothing matters, then this consequence also wouldn’t matter. But this consequence will be extremely harmful if we believe in nihilism but things do matter, an asymmetry that gives us, in Pascalian fashion, pragmatic reasons not to believe in nihilism, and reasons not to try to find out whether it is really true.
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Keywords | Nihilism Moral Error Theory Value Metaethics Moral Psychology Evaluative Belief J. L. Mackie Antirealism Moral Motivation |
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Reprint years | 2017 |
DOI | 10.1111/nous.12146 |
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References found in this work BETA
Taking Morality Seriously: A Defense of Robust Realism.David Enoch - 2011 - Oxford University Press UK.
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Citations of this work BETA
If There Is a Hole, It Is Not God Shaped.Guy Kahane - 2018 - In Klaas J. Kraay (ed.), Does God Matter? Essays on the Axiological Implications of Theism. London, UK: pp. 95-131.
Melis Erdur’s Moral Argument Against Moral Realism.Joshua Blanchard - 2019 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 22 (2):371-377.
Moral Realism and Philosophical Angst.Joshua Blanchard - forthcoming - In Russ Shafer-Landau (ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaethics Volume 15.
View all 9 citations / Add more citations
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