Empirical Realism: Meaning and the Generative Foundation of Morality

Only in the darkest of hours will a few seriously entertain the haunting possibility, almost unthinkable, that at the end of the day our best sense of the world, and of what is abidingly good, is an error. Does then the universe really have a guiding moral structure which is at once integral to the quality of human life? Empirical Realism is Clark’s sustained, challenging and original argument for moral realism, one which not only provides the badly needed account of normativity-of what it is exactly that constitutes genuine moral obligation-but which also anchors that account within a comprehensive philosophical theory. The author’s position, rigorously developed and defended, provides a trek through issues central to classical and contemporary philosophy. Masterfully navigating his readers through the global realism/antirealism debate in Parts I and II, his erudition-sensitive yet unflinching-knows no shortcuts. David Clark’s first book goes on to show how intrinsic value, a value which is inherent and not conferred, is the independently real feature which both generates obligation and is the ground by which it is to be honored. This three-Part text has direct implications for metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, value theory, environmental ethics, and moral theory generally.