Argument From Queerness

Argument From Queerness

"The argument from queerness" is a term used in the philosophical study of ethics first developed by J. L. Mackie in his book Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong ISBN 0-14-013558-8 (1977).

Mackie argues against the view that there can be objective ethical values, and he uses the term to describe a certain sort of reductio ad absurdum which belief in such values implies. He states that "If there were objective values, then they would be entities or qualities or relations of a very strange sort, utterly different from anything else in the universe (1977, p. 38)". Hence Mackie argues that this in itself is sufficient reason for doubting their existence.