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    Moral nihilism cannot be refuted without begging the ques... — Carmelics
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    Home/Skepticism
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    Supports→The irrefutability of moral nihilism supports treating moral nihilism as a viable skeptical hypothesis

    Moral nihilism cannot be refuted without begging the question

    Skepticism
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Moral nihilists question all beliefs in moral wrongness
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    • 2.Any argument against moral nihilism must start from some belief in moral wrongness
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    • 3.Using a belief in moral wrongness to refute moral nihilism assumes what is at issue
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Transcendental arguments can refute nihilism by showing moral discourse is a precondition of coherent rational agency, not by assuming moral content.
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    • 2.Kant's Groundwork demonstrates that rejecting the categorical imperative generates a performative contradiction in the very act of rational deliberation.
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    • 3.An argument that exposes internal incoherence in nihilism does not beg the question, since it appeals to logic rather than to contested moral beliefs.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.The claim conflates epistemic circularity with vicious circularity, a distinction Roderick Chisholm and Michael DePaul develop in foundationalist epistemology.
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    • 2.Moral intuitionism, as defended by G.E. Moore and W.D. Ross, holds that self-evident moral truths can serve as non-question-begging starting points for argument.
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    • 3.If basic logical axioms can be defended against global skepticism without vicious circularity, then basic moral intuitions can be similarly defended against nihilism.
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    Related

    A position that cannot be refuted by starting-point arguments or predictive fail...An argument that exposes internal incoherence in nihilism does not beg the quest...Any argument against moral nihilism must start from some belief in moral wrongne...If basic logical axioms can be defended against global skepticism without viciou...
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    Kant's Groundwork demonstrates that rejecting the categorical imperative generat...Moral intuitionism, as defended by G.E. Moore and W.D. Ross, holds that self-evi...Moral nihilists question all beliefs in moral wrongnessThe claim conflates epistemic circularity with vicious circularity, a distinctio...The irrefutability of moral nihilism supports treating moral nihilism as a viabl...The predictive success of moral nihilism's explanations does not refute moral ni...Transcendental arguments can refute nihilism by showing moral discourse is a pre...Using a belief in moral wrongness to refute moral nihilism assumes what is at is...

    Similar

    Moral nihilism cannot be ruled out by appeal to common moral beliefs81%Moral nihilism cannot be ruled out by logic and semantics alone81%Moral nihilists question all beliefs in moral wrongness79%Moral nihilism cannot be ruled out by arguments from non-moral facts, ...79%

    Source

    AI-extracted
    SEP: skepticism-moral
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    Moral skeptics can then argue that the definition of moral nihilism forestalls any refutation. Since moral nihilists question all of our beliefs in moral wrongness, they leave us with no starting points on which to base arguments against them without begging the question at issue. Moreover, moral nihilists’ explanations of our moral beliefs predict that we would hold exactly these moral beliefs, so the truth of its predictions can hardly refute moral nihilism. If this trick works, then it fits r

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    premise
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit