Moral realism is the doctrine that some moral claims are true in a way that is independent of their being endorsed, or regarded as true, by any human being. Consider, for instance, the claim that torturing babies for the sole purpose of deriving sadistic pleasure is immoral. Moral realists would regard this claim as true. But that itself does not distinguish the moral realist from many other moral theorists. What is distinctive about the moral realist is that the truth of this claim in no way depends on the attitudes that people take toward the claim itself. It is not true because one believes it or because society endorses it. For the moral realist, the standards that determine whether moral claims are true or false are as objective as those that determine the accuracy of claims in logic or the natural sciences.
All moral realists will accept that an action’s rightness depends to some extent on the circumstances in which one is situated. That is because, for the realist, the correct standards of morality may well dictate different actions, depending on the circumstances. In some cases, for instance, it is morally acceptable to cut into the flesh of human beings—for instance, during surgery. But in other cases, such action is impermissible, because it is being done in the name of coercion or humiliation. What is centrally important for the moral realist is that attitudes about what is right and wrong do not determine what really qualifies as such. Even the most cherished moral beliefs might be mistaken, because their authority does not depend on an endorsement of them.
Moral realists qualify as cognitivists. Cognitivists are theorists who conceive of moral judgments in terms of their cognitive content and function. Cognitivists regard moral claims as capable of truth or falsity, and conceive of the function of moral discourse to be that of attempting to describe the nature of moral reality. This differs from noncognitivists, who consider moral judgments to be primarily expressions of emotions or commitments, and, thus, incapable of being either true or false.
Error theorists, like moral realists, accept cognitivism. But error theorists deny that there is any moral reality awaiting discovery. In rendering sincere moral judgments, one is indeed trying to state the truth about what is moral and immoral. But there is, according to error theorists, no such truth. Therefore, all fall into error when issuing moral judgments. Perhaps the most illuminating analogy here is that of the atheist, who regards theistic discourse as intended to describe an objective, divinely ordered reality. But, from the atheist’s perspective, there is no such reality, and so all theistic discourse is riddled with error.
Moral realism should also be distinguished from ethical relativism. The relativist is also a cognitivist, and so believes that moral judgments are capable of truth and falsity. Unlike the error theorist, the relativist thinks that some moral claims are true. But they are true only because they accurately capture the implications of different social agreements. The realist and the relativist differ, in other words, on the ultimate source of correct moral standards. For the relativist, moral standards are correct because they are endorsed by various groups of human beings. For the moral realist, human endorsement is not the ultimate authority in morality.
In psychological circles, moral realism is often associated with the work of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980), who attributed a belief in it to very young children. In Piaget’s hands, moral realism stands for the idea that there are objectively correct moral rules that are never permissibly broken, such that failure to adhere to them is always morally blameworthy. Neither of these latter implications is essential to the doctrine as it is currently discussed within the philosophical community.
