Terence Cuneo, someone already identified by those who have been paying attention as a young moral philosopher to watch, has written a splendid book...an important and engaging contribution to the metaethical literature.

James Lenman, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

The Normative Web is an important book, if for no other reason than it does something that is unfortunately all too rare in contemporary metaethics: it presents a very promising argument in favour of moral realism.

Daniel Star, Mind

Antirealist views about morality claim that moral facts or truths do not exist. Do these views imply that other types of normative facts, such as epistemic ones, do not exist? The Normative Web develops a positive answer to this question. Terence Cuneo argues that the similarities between moral and epistemic facts provide excellent reason to believe that, if moral facts do not exist, then epistemic facts do not exist. But epistemic facts, it is argued, do exist: to deny their existence would commit us to an extreme version of epistemological skepticism. Therefore, Cuneo concludes, moral facts exist. And if moral facts exist, then moral realism is true. In so arguing, Cuneo provides not simply a defense of moral realism, but a positive argument for it. Moreover, this argument engages with a wide range of antirealist positions in epistemology such as error theories, expressivist views, and reductionist views of epistemic reasons. If the central argument of The Normative Web is correct, antirealist positions of these varieties come at a very high cost. Given their cost, Cuneo contends, we should find realism about both epistemic and moral facts highly attractive.
Read more
Introduction ; 1. Moral Realism of a Paradigmatic Sort ; 2. Defending the Parallel ; 3. The Parity Premise ; 4. Epistemic Nihilism ; 5. Epistemic Expressivism: Traditional Views ; 6. Epistemic Expressivism: Nontraditional Views ; 7. Epistemic Reductionism ; 8. Three Objections to the Core Argument ; Bibliography
Read more
Original contribution to key debate in metaethics Highlights the links between ethics and epistemology Excellent critical guide to the philosophical literature
Original contribution to key debate in metaethics Highlights the links between ethics and epistemology Excellent critical guide to the philosophical literature

Product details

ISBN
9780199218837
Published
2007
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Weight
566 gr
Height
240 mm
Width
160 mm
Thickness
20 mm
Age
P, 06
Language
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Number of pages
272

Author