Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Murphy and Moral Law

A moral law expresses a governing relationship between two properties, P and Q.  It is not the law itself that governs P or Q.  Rather, a moral law is an expression of the governing relationship P has over Q, with P morally selecting Q to be performed. It is the governing relationship that’s central to moral law, not that a law itself governs.

On Natural Law, it is the good itself that fixes what is wrong, that calls the shot.  So it fulfills the role of P.  The goods generate the laws by selecting properties, and these selections of properties are what explains the wrongness of certain actions.  This makes Natural Law an axiologist theory: Value concepts are basic and deontic concepts are derivative.

Moral laws explain moral facts.  A moral fact is something like “Bob shouldn't disrespect the good.”  Moral laws are not moral facts.  For a moral law is an expression of a relationship between a property, “goodness,” selecting for other properties, “must be respected.” This explains the moral fact of why Bob should not disrespect the good.  So the good calls the shots, selecting the proper responses to it.  This relationship results in an expression of moral law.  And moral facts are then explained by the moral law.

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