Raymundo, Camille Anne A.

October 26,
2021
BS Entrepreneurship 2-1
Ethics

DOES ANYTHING MATTER?

Yes, moral judgement can be true or false, but the question is, what makes them
true or false? If they are true, are they objectively true?
In the book On What Matters, Derek Parfit basically argues for an objectively
ethical theory, claiming that we have reasons to act that cannot be accounted for by
subjective ethical theories. He rejects all forms of subjectivism as well as ethical
naturalism in ethics. Instead, he claims that objective, non- natural normative truths
exist, which personally I kind of disagree. As it was mentioned there, one of the main
arguments against objectivism in ethics is that people have deeply opinions about what
is right and wrong, and I truly agree with that because one of the factors that shape
human behavior is the culture of the society in which one lives. Some people determine
that something is moral even the vast majority of others believe it is immoral, and vice
versa. This can differ depending on nationality, political affiliation, legal issues, personal
experience, and so on. We cannot control and dictate what is morally right and wrong
for them because they make their own judgement based on their values and beliefs.
The line “there seems to be no way of verifying the truth of moral judgements”
stuck in my head. If the great thinkers completely disagree about Parfit’s view, how
much more am I. I cannot even think of possible reasons for the moral judgements to be
viewed objectively. As per the given example, when we say, “You ought not to hit that
child”, yes it makes sense that there is no truth to the question of whether or not hitting
a child is wrong but at the end of the day, it falls to the human consciousness. Is it really
possible to have an objectively true answer to that question? Although Parfit responded
and ended up making more daring claim than his support of objectivism in ethics, I am
still not convinced because moral judgements are true or false, and actions are right or
wrong only from a certain perspective (usually the moral framework of a specific
community). There is no way to prove that one point of view is objectively superior to
another.
All in all, Derek Parfit still gave us a good point to be tackled about. It is an
important matter after all. I still learned something from it, and we cannot deny that it is
helpful to us, it’s just that, it is different from what we are witnessing today. To
summarize the point, Philosopher Derek Parfit claimed that nothing matters unless
ethical and other normative beliefs are objectively true.