This is a useful exploration of this form of objection, and is a start toward the underlying question: what is a moral claim? I think to a non-realist, who thinks moral frameworks are about heuristics to influence other agents’ (and components of our own) behavior, this is not much of an issue. “too much to demand” is exactly that—it’s more than the other agents are likely willing to comply with.
It’s trickier for other views of morality—if you think there IS a truth to the matter beyond social perception and individual judgement, then you need some way to balance the competing desires of agents—either just recognize that most are immoral on many margins, or that the moral action is a fairly complex calculation of values and costs. Perhaps made more complicated by different moral weight of the dimensions of costs and values.
This is a useful exploration of this form of objection, and is a start toward the underlying question: what is a moral claim? I think to a non-realist, who thinks moral frameworks are about heuristics to influence other agents’ (and components of our own) behavior, this is not much of an issue. “too much to demand” is exactly that—it’s more than the other agents are likely willing to comply with.
It’s trickier for other views of morality—if you think there IS a truth to the matter beyond social perception and individual judgement, then you need some way to balance the competing desires of agents—either just recognize that most are immoral on many margins, or that the moral action is a fairly complex calculation of values and costs. Perhaps made more complicated by different moral weight of the dimensions of costs and values.