The ideal observer view tries to combine feelings with rationality. It says that "X is good" means "We'd desire X if we were fully informed and had impartial concern for everyone." We are to pick our moral principles by first trying to develop rational moral feelings (by striving to become informed and impartial), and then following our feelings.The ideal observer view, while a vast improvement over cultural relativism and subjectivism, still has problems, at least as we've developed the view so far. For example, it arbitrarily gives us just two rationality conditions -- and it's unclear what "impartial" means.
<= back | menu | forward =>