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Gilbert Harman: the Nature of Morality

question 5

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Gilbert Harman: The Nature of Morality
Scientific inquiry proceeds largely by testing hypotheses against our observations. Harman argues that moral inquiry cannot proceed in this fashion, and that this disanalogy constitutes a serious problem for ethics. The difference between science and ethics, Harman claims, is that although we must make assumptions about certain physical facts to explain the observations that support our scientific theories, we do not need to make any assumptions about any moral facts to explain our "moral observations." On the contrary, Harman contends, we can explain why someone makes the moral judgments that they do simply by making reference to the nonmoral facts and the "moral sensibilities" of the agent. This seems to make it impossible to test moral claims against reality in the way that we test scientific claims.
Harman discusses several possible responses to this problem. One is to accept moral nihilism, the view that there are no moral facts. Nihilism comes in two flavors. Extreme nihilists hold that morality is simply an illusion, and that nothing is really good or bad, right or wrong. Moderate nihilists hold that the purpose of moral judgments is not to attribute moral properties to things, but simply to express our feelings. Both versions of nihilism conflict with the commonsense notions that some moral claims are true, and that we have some moral knowledge. Another kind of response is to reject nihilism on the grounds that moral facts are definable in terms of facts that do play a role in scientific explanations. This position is reductionism. Some evaluative facts seem to be reducible in this sense. In particular, whether something is a good thing of its kind is reducible to the question of whether it fulfills its function-for example, a good knife is simply a knife that cuts well. Other things can be judged good if and only if they serve a particular interest-for example, a good meal is one that is nourishing or tasty. Harman points out that any reduction of moral facts on these lines would have to be complicated and somewhat vague. He concludes, therefore, that moral facts remain problematic.
-Harman claims that when we judge something good relative to interests, roles, or functions, such judgments are:

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Framing Effect

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Confirmation Bias

The habit of looking for, understanding, preferring, and remembering information that validates one's existing views or theories.

Factor Analysis

A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person’s total score.

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