Is the argument here supposed to be particular to meta-normativity, or is it something more like “I generally think that there are philosophy facts, those seem kind of a priori-ish and not obviously natural/normal, so maybe a priori normative facts are OK too, even if we understand neither of them”?
Re: meta-philosophy, I tend to see philosophy as fairly continuous with just “good, clear thinking” and “figuring out how stuff hangs together,” but applied in a very general way that includes otherwise confusing stuff. I agree various philosophical domains feel pretty a priori-ish, and I don’t have a worked out view of a priori knowledge, especially synthetic a priori knowledge (I tend to expect us to be able to give an account of how we get epistemic access to analytic truths). But I think I basically want to make the same demands of other a priori-ish domains that I do normativity. That is, I want the right kind of explanatory link between our belief formation and the contents of the domain—which, for “realist” construals of the domain, I expect to require that the contents of the domain play some role in explaining our beliefs.
Re: the relationship between meta-normativity and normativity in particular, I wonder if a comparison to the relationship between “meta-theology” and “theology” might be instructive here. I feel like I want to be fairly realist about certain “meta-theological facts” like “the God of Christianity doesn’t exist” (maybe this is just a straightforward theological fact?). But this doesn’t tempt me towards realism about God. Maybe talking about normative “properties” instead of normative facts would be easier here, since one can imagine e.g. a nihilist denying the existence of normative properties, but accepting some ‘normative’ (meta-normative?) facts like “there is no such thing as goodness” or “pleasure is not good.”
I would think the metatheological fact you want to be realist about is something like “there is a fact of the matter about whether the God of Christianity exists.” “The God of Christianity doesn’t exist” strikes me as an object-level theological fact.
The metaethical nihilist usually makes the cut at claims that entail the existence of normative properties. That is, “pleasure is not good” is not a normative fact, as long as it isn’t read to entail that pleasure is bad. “Pleasure is not good” does not by itself entail the existence of any normative property.
Is the argument here supposed to be particular to meta-normativity, or is it something more like “I generally think that there are philosophy facts, those seem kind of a priori-ish and not obviously natural/normal, so maybe a priori normative facts are OK too, even if we understand neither of them”?
Re: meta-philosophy, I tend to see philosophy as fairly continuous with just “good, clear thinking” and “figuring out how stuff hangs together,” but applied in a very general way that includes otherwise confusing stuff. I agree various philosophical domains feel pretty a priori-ish, and I don’t have a worked out view of a priori knowledge, especially synthetic a priori knowledge (I tend to expect us to be able to give an account of how we get epistemic access to analytic truths). But I think I basically want to make the same demands of other a priori-ish domains that I do normativity. That is, I want the right kind of explanatory link between our belief formation and the contents of the domain—which, for “realist” construals of the domain, I expect to require that the contents of the domain play some role in explaining our beliefs.
Re: the relationship between meta-normativity and normativity in particular, I wonder if a comparison to the relationship between “meta-theology” and “theology” might be instructive here. I feel like I want to be fairly realist about certain “meta-theological facts” like “the God of Christianity doesn’t exist” (maybe this is just a straightforward theological fact?). But this doesn’t tempt me towards realism about God. Maybe talking about normative “properties” instead of normative facts would be easier here, since one can imagine e.g. a nihilist denying the existence of normative properties, but accepting some ‘normative’ (meta-normative?) facts like “there is no such thing as goodness” or “pleasure is not good.”
I would think the metatheological fact you want to be realist about is something like “there is a fact of the matter about whether the God of Christianity exists.” “The God of Christianity doesn’t exist” strikes me as an object-level theological fact.
The metaethical nihilist usually makes the cut at claims that entail the existence of normative properties. That is, “pleasure is not good” is not a normative fact, as long as it isn’t read to entail that pleasure is bad. “Pleasure is not good” does not by itself entail the existence of any normative property.