On Michael Smith's Naturalistic Moral Realism

Michael Smith is one of the famous representatives of contemporary naturalistic moral realism.The main task of this thesis is to examine critically his naturalistic moral realism.The proposition of Smith’s naturalistic moral realism stems from his solution to the core problem of contemporary meta-ethics,the moral problem.According to him,the "moral problem" is composed of three obviously inconsistent statements:(1)The objectivity thesis(2)the practical thsis(3)the theory of motivation.All three of these topics are considered alone,and we have enough reasons and intuitions to accept them.However,putting them together will lead to logically inconsistent problems.This is because the thesis(1)And(2)mean that moral beliefs can generate their own desires,while thesis(3)denies this.Smith’s answer to these questions rests on his naturalistic analysis of the concept of "rightness," which is based on his naturalistic realism.His argument and theory can be stated as follows:(ⅰ)x is right if and only if when we are perfectly rational,we all want it.(ⅱ)These attributes are naturalistic attributes that can be confirmed by our observations.(ⅲ)Thus,x is right if and only if it possesses such naturalistic attributes that we all want it when we are perfectly rational("we all want them" is also a naturalistic attribute,psychology can describe the properties).In this way,Smith transformed the "rightness" of the concept of value into an empirically verifiable natural attribute.Conclusion(ⅲ)is the central theme of his naturalistic moral realism.According to Smith,his naturalistic moral realism can solve the "moral problem".His deduction is as follows:What we believe to be justified(that is,what we judge is what is right),we are actually saying that when we are perfectly rational,we want to ask what we do.Our moral judgment.therefore,is the belief that we believe in an objective fact(that is,what we want to do,when we are perfectly rational).Therefore,the issue of moral issues(1)is true.Therefore.when we are perfectly rational,reason unconditionally demands that we must act according to the normative reason we believe.Thus,when we make the moral judgment of what we have normative reasons to do,as a rational man,in accordance with the absolute demand of reason,we will surely have the desire to act according to that judgment.So.the issues that constitute the moral issue(2)are true.As explained above,we can accept the subject(3)without compromise on Hume’s theory of motivation.Smith believes that his naturalistic moral realism can justify both the objectivity and practicality of our moral judgments,as expressed in the preceding topics(1)and(2),not only by capturing many of our everyday moral generalities.Smith’s solution not only eliminates the need to deny Humeanism psychological assumptions,but also guarantees the objectivity and practicality of morality that allows us to solve the "moral problems," and such a solution allows us to put morality in a more Wide naturalism.Smith’s naturalistic moral realism has high research value in the field of metaethics and normative ethics.