A Study on the Semantics of Cornell Realism based on Richard Boyd’s View

Abstract

Cornell realism belongs to the new wave movements in ethical naturalism debates. What distinguishes Cornell realism from other ethical naturalism is that the thesis adopts an anti-reductionist approach towards ethical facts. Our aim in this paper is to consider the thesis based on Richard Boyd’s views who is the most well-known defender of the thesis. We try to show that Boyd’s proposal on the semantics of ethical terms can defuse both Moore’s open-question argument and constructivist relativism arguments. Along with considering Boyd’s thesis, we will consider the required premises of his argument like the idea of the natural kind, extensional identities, co-referentiality, and partial denotation.

Keywords

• semantics of moral realism
• cornell realism
• richard boyd
• open question argument
• constructivist relativism