This is a video lecture on chapter 17, titled “Values in a Scientific World”, of Russ Shafer-Landau’s book, ‘Whatever Happened to Good and Evil?’ The argument that this chapter considers is one that claims that if one follow’s Occam’s Razor, then one ought to reject the reality of objective moral facts or laws. This is an argument for moral skepticism, and Shafer-Landau offers several responses to it and in defense of moral objectivism. In the end, he claims that this use of occam’s razor defeats itself. This lecture is part of an introductory level philosophy course, Introduction to Ethics.

Occam’s razor applies only to descriptive facts, not normative ones.

This is a video lecture about the different between descriptive claims or laws, on the one hand, and normative claims or laws, on the other. I also explain three different varieties of normativity: the moral, the prudential, and the epistemic. This video was originally produced for use in an introductory level philosophy course, Introduction to Ethics. But it is a stand-alone explanation, so it can be used in any other context.

This is a lecture about chapter 14 of Russ Shafer-Landau’s book ‘Whatever Happened to Good and Evil?’ This chapter is about the popular argument that starts from the claim that there is persistent disagreement about moral matters to the conclusion that there are no objective moral facts or laws. Shafer-Landau is able to turn this argument against moral skepticism itself. This is a pretty long video lecture, but I spend a lot of time modifying the argument, which should be helpful in learning how to deal with arguments themselves. This is part of an introductory level philosophy course, Introduction to Ethics.

This video lecture builds off of a reading by MacKinnon & Fiala, wherein they canvas four arguments or reasons that moral skepticism or relativism are attractive. In the video I only discuss two of these reasons : (1) the existence pervasiveness, and persistence of moral disagreement and (2) the diversity of situations in which moral agents find themselves. This is part of an introductory level philosophy course, Introduction to Ethics.

Specifically, Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues, “Chapter 3. Ethical Relativism » Reasons Supporting Ethical Relativism.”

This is a lecture about chapter 11 of Russ Shafer-Landau’s book ‘Whatever Happened to Good and Evil?’ It deals with Moral Skepticism, Moral Nihilism, Moral Subjectivism, Moral Relativism, as well as the global versions of all of these views, which are self-defeating. All of the uses of “Moral” are understood as equivalent to “Ethical”. This lecture is part of an introductory-level philosophy course, Introduction to Ethics.

This is a video lecture about chapter 3 (“Moral Error”) of Russ Shafer-Landau’s book ‘Whatever Happened to Good and Evil?’. The argument relies on a distinction between internal and external moral critiques. This is part of an introductory level philosophy course, Introduction to Ethics.

This is a lecture about the metaethical terminology used by Shafer-Landau in chapter 3 of his book, “Whatever Happened to Good and Evil?” The theories distinguished include: moral objectivism, moral skepticism, cultural moral relativism, moral subjectivism, error theory (about moral discourse), and non-cognitivism (about moral discourse). It is part of an introductory level philosophy course, Introduction to Ethics, in the Metaethics unit of that course.