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Is morality objective? In other words, are there moral obligations that apply to all rational beings?

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Is morality objective? In other words, are there moral obligations that apply to all rational beings?

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Consider some theories that deny this, and some reasons why those theories fail (cf. James Rachels, Elements of Moral Philosophy, third edition, 1999): Nihilism: Morality is an illusion; there are no moral obligations. This would mean that there s nothing inherently wrong with something like cruelty, which seems strongly counterintuitive. A nihilist would have no grounds upon which to argue rationally against someone else who wanted to harm him or her just for the fun of it. Psychological egoism: We can t avoid being selfish, hence there s no point in reasoning about ethics. Selfishness can sometimes masquerade as altruism, to be sure. But PE is too sweeping and reductionistic: even if showing compassion toward others makes you happy, that isn t necessarily why you do it. Even if we are sometimes selfish, we can have unselfish motives, too. Normative egoism: I have no moral obligations to anyone else; only my interests count in deciding what I should do. But if others interests are sim

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