re after years can we say that christian morality is reply to frank d s uucp frank o dwyer i m one of those people who does not know what the word objective means when put next to the word morality i assume its an idiom and cannot be defined by its separate terms give it a try objective morality is morality built from objective values from a dictionary of philosophy by anthony flew objectivism the belief that there are certain moral truths that would remain true whatever anyone or everyone thought or desired for instance no one should ever deliberately inflict pain on another simply to take pleasure in his suffering might be thought of as a plausible example even in a world of sadists who all rejected it the contention remains true just as remains correct even if there is no one left to count the problem for the objectivist is to determine the status of moral truths and the method by which they can be established if we accept that such judgements are not reports of what is but only relate to what ought to be see naturalistic fallacy then they cannot be proved by any facts about the nature of the world nor can they be analytic since this would involve lack of action guiding content one ought always to do the right thing is plainly true in virtue of the vords involved but it is unhelpful as a practical guide to action see analytic and synthetic at this point the objectivist may talk of self evident truths but can he deny the subjectivist s claim that self evidence is in the mind of the beholder if not what is left of the claim that some moral judgements are true the subjectivist may well feel that all that remains is that there are some moral judgements with which he would wish to associate himself to hold a moral opinion is he suggests not to know something to be true but to have preferences regarding human activity david nye nyeda cnsvax uwec edu midelfort clinic eau claire wi this is patently absurd but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities bertrand russell
