More on Naturalism and Nihilism

A reader comments:

You say: "I would argue that a naturalist/physicalist/materialist ought to be a moral nihilist, and that when these types fight shy of moral nihilism that merely shows an inability or unwillingness on their part to appreciate the logical consequences of their own doctrine, or else some sort of psychological compartmentalization. "

 

I agree with you that the naturalist/materialist/physicalist ought - intellectually ought - to be a moral nihilist. Of course, that's not a very popular position. So aren't we left with the case where the naturalist/materialist/physicalist 'ought' to pretend to be otherwise? In other words, when we see someone like Hitchens talking about moral oughts, is this necessarily a case of either compartmentalization or contradiction? What about the other option: they're lying, because what's important is advancing an agenda. After all, moral nihilism doesn't compel one to be up front about one's moral nihilism.

The reader agrees that naturalism logically requires moral nihilism.  That it does is not obvious and requires argument. A naturalist might try to argue that objective values either supervene upon, or emerge from, pure natural facts.  A huge topic!  For one thing, it depends on exactly what sort of naturalism is under discussion.  A nonreductive naturalist might escape the entailment, assuming he can make sense of nonreductivism, and good luck with that.   But surely an eliminativist naturalist would not.  So it seems obvious that eliminativist naturalism does entail moral nihilism.  We can raise our question with respect to a naturalist of this stripe.

 

So, assuming that some versions of naturalism do entail moral nihilism, what ought we say about the naturalist proponent of one of these versions who refuses to accept the consequence?

 

I suggested that there are two options:  either he is simply being logically inconsistent, something I wouldn't put past a 'public intellectual,'  or he is compartmentalizing.  (I saw a show last night on TV about one 'Mad Dog' Sullivan, mafia hit man.  He was a good husband and father when he wasn't gunning people down in cold blood.  He'd walk into a bar, shoot his victim through the head, and calmly walk out.  He has about 20-30 murders to his 'credit.'  He pulled off the compartmentalization by telling himself that his crimes were just 'business.'  The most depressing bit came at the end when his wife and two sons insisted that Sullivan was "a good man.")

 

My reader suggests a third option: (some) naturalists are just lying. They see what their naturalism entails, and they are not compartmentalizing.  They are lying to forward their agenda.  After all, a fully self-aware moral nihilist would not consider truth to be a an objective value, and so could not have any moral scruples about lying.

 

I think my reader made a good point.  If you are an eliminativist naturalist, and do not accept  moral nihilism as a logical consequence of your naturalism, then you are either being logically inconsistent, or you are a self-deceived compartmentalizer, or you are a lousy no good liar!

 

You can guess what my strategy will be with respect to the other naturalisms.  I will test whether or not they collapse into eliminativism in the end.