SHAFER-LANDAU, Russ. Moral Realism: A Defence. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003. vii + 322 pp. Cloth, $76.50; paper, $32.50--Shafer-Landau's Moral Realism provides a carefully developed defense of a nonnaturalistic moral realism. Shafer-Landau covers a wide range of material, presenting an impressive array of arguments (many original, others important contributions drawn from contemporary discussion) both in providing positive support for his position and in undermining opposing views. In particular, he draws upon influential recent work in analytic philosophy of mind and epistemology to develop a nonnaturalistic moral realism that can avoid or respond to various charges of mysteriousness that have plagued such approaches in the past.

The book is divided into five parts. In the first, Realism and its Critics, Shafer-Landau considers rival, nonrealist metaethics. He discusses familiar worries with various forius of noncognitivism. In his second chapter he presents a powerful dilemma--a variation of the Euthyphro dilemma--for constructivist theories (which he construes as cognitivist, but nonrealist): either the initial conditions under which the construction takes place are moralized or they are not. For example, consider an ideal observer theory. If ideal observers are taken to have traits like benevolence, honesty and so on, then we seem to be appealing to prior (realist?) moral standards in choosing such traits. On the other...