Is morality a fact of nature or a human invention?
In short: If you believe that murder is wrong, are you describing a physical fact of the universe or a human construct? Moral nihilism suggests that objective moral properties do not exist at all, making every moral judgment we ever make a systematic error of human perception.
Moral nihilism is the metaethical view that nothing is inherently right or wrong because morality simply does not exist. Unlike moral relativism, which suggests morality varies by culture, nihilism denies its existence entirely. J. This perspective gained significant traction following its debut in that specific 1977 volume. Mackie's 1977 publication, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong, introduced the well-known 'error theory' variant. L. Mackie's work remains a primary example of this modern philosophical stance. This theory posits that while we sincerely make moral judgments, we are always in error because there are no objective moral facts in the world to correspond to our claims.
Mackie famously argued from the 'argument from queerness.' He suggested that if objective moral values existed, they would be 'queer'—entities or properties utterly different from anything else in the natural physical world. They would have to be intrinsically motivating, guiding our actions independent of our desires. Because such properties do not comport with philosophical naturalism—the idea that everything is part of the physical world science investigates—Mackie argued they are prima facie implausible. Other philosophers, like Richard Joyce, offer 'fictionalism,' suggesting moral claims are like the statement 'the present king of France is bald'; they are neither true nor false because they presuppose a fact (a moral truth) that does not exist.
The debate over how to live under nihilism creates a philosophical divide. Some argue that moralizing remains a useful social tool even if fundamentally false. Conversely, 'moral abolitionists' like Richard Garner argue that engaging in moralism is a deceptive behavior that harms epistemological integrity. He proposed 'informed, compassionate amoralism' as an alternative, focusing on non-duplicity and clarity of language to foster cooperation without the pretense of objective morality.
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