J. L. Mackie: Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong

question 14

Essay

J. L. Mackie: Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong
Mackie's position, which he calls "moral skepticism" but has come to be more commonly known as "the error theory," involves two central claims. First, Mackie claims that ordinary moral discourse contains a "claim to objectivity." When someone makes a moral claim-e.g., that abortion is immoral-they do not mean to merely express their feelings or issue a command. Rather, they are seeking to describe an intrinsic feature of the action in question-in this case, that abortion is objectively the sort of thing that ought not to be done. Second, Mackie claims that objective moral values do not exist. It follows from these two theses that all moral claims are false.
Mackie gives two main arguments for his claim that objective values do not exist. The Argument from Relativity maintains that variation in moral judgments, both between individuals and between societies, is best explained by the hypothesis that moral judgments reflect ways of life rather than objective moral facts. If so, Mackie claims, there is good reason to believe that moral facts do not exist. The second argument, the Argument from Queerness, has two parts, one metaphysical and one epistemological. Metaphysically, if objective values did exist, they would be completely unlike anything else in the universe, in that they would give us reasons for action independently of what we happen to desire or aim at. Epistemologically, if such values existed, they would have to be known by some special faculty of intuition, completely different from our other ways of knowing about the world. Because it is implausible that such strange facts or faculties exist, Mackie claims, we should accept that no objective values exist. Mackie concludes with a brief discussion of how people could come to believe in objective values, despite their non-existence.
-Mackie claims that moral judgments contain a "claim to objectivity." Explain what he means by this. Why does he think that rival theories fail to capture this aspect of moral discourse? Do you think he is correct about this?

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Definitions:

T cells

A type of lymphocyte developed in the thymus, crucial for the adaptive immune response, playing roles in cell-mediated immunity and the activation of other immune cells.

Opsonization

The process where pathogens are marked for destruction by immune cells through the binding of antibodies or complement proteins.

Phagocytosis

The process by which a cell engulfs particles such as bacteria or cellular debris to digest them.

Antigens

Substances (often proteins) on the surface of cells, viruses, fungi, or bacteria that the immune system recognizes and targets.