Moral Dependence

Abstract

Abstract What is the relation between moral and natural properties? And how do we conceive of this relation? By ‘moral’ properties I will mean properties such as being evil, just, or virtuous or having duties or rights; and by ‘natural’ properties I will mean properties such as psychological, sociological, and physical properties.¹Suppose we judge that Queen Isabella of Spain was evil in 1492, or at least that many of her actions in 1492 were evil. Then we do not think that she had various natural properties in 1492— such as being a torturer, a bigot, and desiring other’s pain— and by an astounding coincidence she or her actions also had the moral property of evil. Rather, we think that she or her actions were evil in virtue of those natural properties; we think that her moral properties depend on her natural properties; we think that she had her moral properties because of her natural properties. In general, when we make a moral judgment we judge not just that something has a moral property, but that it has a moral property because it has some natural property. This is a fundamental principle of our moral thought.