Rational learners and metaethics: Universalism, relativism, and evidence from consensus
Abstract
Recent work in folk metaethics finds a correlation between perceived consensus about a moral claim and meta‐ethical judgments about whether the claim is universally or only relatively true. We argue that consensus can provide evidence for meta‐normative claims, such as whether a claim is universally true. We then report several experiments indicating that people use consensus to make inferences about whether a claim is universally true. This suggests that people's beliefs about relativism and universalism are partly guided by evidence‐based reasoning. In a final study, we show that the rejection of universalism does not generate a simple subjectivism but is associated with a more moderate relativism on which highly atypical positions are regarded as mistaken.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Apr 03, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1111/mila.12232
Entities
People
- Alisabeth Ayars
- Shaun Nichols
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Princeton University
- University of Arizona