Is it permissible for a program to let their applicants know the final results after April 15th?

[TakeruK]

Thanks for the additional clarifications I think my single class in undergrad on moral philosophy have left me with a lot of misconceptions and I'm glad everyone here was able to clearly (and nicely!) explain why! 

 

If you would indulge me, I am still a little confused about the difference between moral relativism and moral anti-realism. I like to think with concrete examples because unfortunately, without the right background, I don't know what you mean when you say "Anti-realism covers a broader range of views" or what you mean by "moral subjectivism". I was thinking it would help if someone could compare how a moral realist and an anti-realist would answer these two questions:

 

Do you think murder is immoral? Why do you think that way? 

 

(Or, is this a completely naive/silly way to think about this completely?? If so, sorry!)

 

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[ianfaircloud]

I'll be brief, and I invite others to offer clarifications or modifications as they see fit. There are some people who describe moral realism as the view that there is at least one first-order moral truth that holds independently of any minds. I'm not sure whether that's the best way to put it, but it's been put that way. Moral anti-realism simply denies this view. That's a crude way of putting it.

 

People pushed back against your murder example, because it's incoherent to speak of murder being morally permissible. Murder is wrongful killing. So you can't wrongfully kill without it being wrongful. It turns out that it's tough to come up with good examples to drive home the point. That makes sense, given that the discussion itself concerns whether there are any truths like these.

 

I'll let someone else chime in now to offer more explanation and to give you the practical example you're looking for, only because I have an appointment in a few minutes...