In Defense of Objective Moral Rules

I recently engaged in a remote conversation with someone to try to convince them that we should believe in objective moral rules.

I had the thought that I might better express how I feel about objective moral rules if I draw on my own experiences.

To me, thinking about some moral rules being objective makes me think of the experience of being touched slightly inappropriately as a child.

From what I remember, there was an older and bigger boy at school who used to come up behind me and touch me between the legs. It was over the shorts and underwear, but it still really bothered me. I remember whirling around and yelling something like: ‘Cut it out!’ I remember him saying back something like: ‘Why? I like it.’ I remember feeling it felt infuriating, like he was saying that I did not have a choice about who would touch my own body if he wanted to.

I remember him also threatening to do sexual things to me, even though I kept telling him to shut up.

Looking back on the memory, in light of this discussion, it feels kind of like that boy was, without understanding what he was doing, appealing to the notion that moral rules are subjective. He was sort of saying that it did not matter that I did not like him touching me if he did like it. To me, that sounds like what it would mean for moral rules to be only be subjective. It would mean that, even if it was true for one person that it was wrong to touch others without their consent, this truth would be subjective to that person, and so another person could say that they were fine with touching others without their consent. The opinion of the aggressor would cancel out the opinion of the victim.

In short, I think that we can only enforce the rule that says it is generally wrong to touch others without their consent if we say the rule is objective. The rule is not subjectively true for the victim and not true for the aggressor. The rule applies generally. In other words, the rule is objective.

Fortunately for me, the authority figures enforced the rule as though it were objective. I told my mother about the bigger boy, and she told the school. The school intervened on the bigger boy, and they made him call my mother and apologize. And so, he left me alone after that.

In hindsight, I am very grateful that society enforces the rule against touching others without their consent as an objective rule.

In conclusion, I believe that society should enforce some of its rules as objective moral rules.