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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
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    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Moral nihilism cannot be refuted without begging the question

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 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 for 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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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 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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