PHL100Y1 Lecture Notes - Moral Realism
Document Summary
Plato is a moral realist: he thinks that there are real objects that underly and underpin moral matters. The forms are objects that are ideal, perfect standards. These idealized objects are perfect and can gain knowledge from thinking about them. Plato thinks that a set of ideal standards underly not just physical matters but also moral matters. Plato thinks that you need real objects underpinning because without them then there really isn"t fact of the matter at all. Human beings are inclined to argue over these kind of questions of what is right and wrong. We tend not to think of moral matters. In order to ground claims, that has to be something real to back it up. He adds that facts that underly judgments of right and wrong are complex and technical and are not accessible to everyone e. g. quantum physics and medicine. Complicated technical crafts: we are inclined to think there are facts of the matter.
