Abstract

Matt Lutz and Spencer Case’s book – Is Morality Real? A Debate (New York: Routledge, 2024) – has three parts. First, Lutz and Case set out what moral realism is. Roughly, moral realism says that there is mind-independent morality. Moral anti-realism says that moral realism is false. Along the way, they set out and evaluate different types of moral realism and moral anti-realism. Second, Case and Lutz argue for their positions. Third, Case and Lutz debate their arguments in four short and highly-readable debate chapters. One of Case’s arguments fails because he cannot say whether an epistemic reason is a type of moral reason. And one of Lutz’s arguments fails because he identifies a reason in terms of desire and this makes a reason float free of the well-being of the person to whom the reason applies or to something that matters in itself. Still, the book is superb.