Do We Have Reason to Adopt Religious Fictionalism or Moral Fictionalism?

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines whether there is reason to favor religious or moral fictionalism rather than abolitionism when faced with the choice between fictionalism and abolitionism. The author argues that if there are general and practical benefits of continued engagement in a certain discourse and its associated set of practices, then we have reason to adopt fictionalism rather than abolitionism. She further argues that there are three conditions—the Ubiquity Condition, the Indispensability Condition, and the Business as Usual Condition—under which there would be such benefits, ceteris paribus. She shows that religious discourse and its associated practices do not satisfy any of the three conditions, whereas moral discourse and its associated practices satisfy two of them. The chapter concludes that, as far as the three conditions are concerned, we do not have reason to adopt religious fictionalism whereas we do have reason to adopt moral fictionalism.