Are Most Philosophers Relativists?

Dialogues #26

“In argument about moral problems, relativism is the first refuge of the scoundrel." - Roger Scruton

If I were to ask what percentage of working, professional philosophers were moral relativists, what would be your guess?

First things first: let's define our terms.

Students often get confused about what moral relativism claims.

I often hear something like this:

Well, other countries and groups have different moral commitments and beliefs than mine. In some cultures, it is unethical to kill a cow, and in other cultures it is ethically permissible. So moral beliefs and commitments are relative to each culture.

If relativism was merely the descriptive claim that different cultures hold different moral beliefs, most people would be relativists, and they would be correct.

There is nothing philosophically interesting about the claim that cultures differ in their moral commitments.

Instead, moral relativism involves the why of why something is morally good or bad.

For example, according to moral relativism, what makes polygamy morally right or wrong is relative to each culture, involving that culture's beliefs, commitments, traditions, etc. On this view, there is no objective fact of the matter.

Philosophers have noticed that moral relativism comes with a major cost: if you find yourself in a culture that is against slavery, for example, and you are a moral relativist, you cannot tell another culture practicing slavery that they are doing something immoral.

Why is slavery permissible in that culture? Or the direct auction and selling of children to the highest bidder in some cultures? Because of that culture's beliefs, commitments, traditions, etc. On that view, there is no objective fact of the matter.

That's a big cost.

Generalize from that particular example to any political issue you care about, and you see the problem.

Consistent moral relativism prevents cross-cultural ethics and activism.

I'll ask the question again: what percentage of working, professional philosophers do you think are moral relativists?

Fortunately, we don't have to guess.

A site that is essential for philosophers, PhilPapers.org, "surveyed the philosophical views of 1,785 English-speaking philosophers from around the world on 100 philosophical questions".

I use results from this survey just about every time I teach on a subject. To the extent that the results roughly reflect the field as a whole, the survey can be helpful.

They ran a similar survey back in 2009, but the 2020 survey was more expansive in questions and in the number of philosophers surveyed.

Two thirds of philosophers surveyed were moral realists: they believe there are moral facts, and that those facts depend on facts about the world.

Check out the following results when they were asked about their views on morality when it comes to non-naturalism (a moral realist position that believes moral facts are not reducible to only scientific, "natural" facts), naturalist realism (a moral realist position that believes moral facts may be reducible to scientific, "natural" facts), expressivism (there are no moral facts, just expressions of emotions about moral claims), error theory (all moral statements are in fact false), or constructivism (moral facts ultimately depend on rational persons who construct morality):

The majority of philosophers believe that for many moral claims (like for slavery, or polygamy, or child auctions), there is a fact of the matter whether that claim is true or false.

Or take claims involving one's well-being: is it that case that whatever improves your well-being is merely relative to you and your desires?

Most philosophers don't think so.

Most philosophers believe there is some objective list of things that are in fact good for your well-being, and it's not even close:

Of course, for objectivists there will be disputes about what to include in the objective list, but not a dispute over whether there is in fact an objective list of what contributes to well-being.

What about art? Many people believe that whether a work of art is beautiful is completely subjective.

Even when it comes to art and aesthetics, more philosophers believe there is a fact of the matter for aesthetic value; whether (for example) Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness was a complete waste of time and marked the end of anything approaching good quality in the Avengers series, or not.

Ok, but how are we supposed to know whether something is a fact? Don't most philosophers doubt even the most obvious facts, like the fact that I'm here right now and not dreaming?

Not exactly:

The vast majority of philosophers believe there is an external world. Now, they may run through mental exercises and thought experiments on the way to a non-skeptical conclusion. But it just isn't the case that most philosophers are committed skeptics.

The world of academic philosophy is in many ways a mess. All the general problems of higher education show up everywhere in philosophy and in full force (though maybe not as much as in English departments).

But getting an accurate view of the field involves taking note of what philosophers actually report to believe, and for all kinds of reasons, most philosophers are not relativists or skeptics.

That's at least a start.

Until next time.

Jared

P.S. Today is World Philosophy Day. One philosopher notes, "bridging the social gap between those who think of philosophy as valuable and those who don’t might be of particular importance nowadays".

Challenge accepted.

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