Reasons and Moral Relativism

This chapter introduces the internalist account of what reasons are, according to which what we have reason to do depends in some way on our antecedent desires, contrasting it with externalism about reasons. Drawing on the internalist views of David Hume and Bernard Williams, it sets out the worry that accepting internalism about reasons commits us to moral relativism. Indeed, Gilbert Harman embraced such relativism on internalist grounds. The chapter considers and rejects one way to resist Harman’s relativist conclusions (endorsed at times by Williams and Philippa Foot): abandoning the tie between what we morally ought to do and what we have reason to do. We seem to be left with a choice: we must accept moral relativism, or reject internalism about reasons.