What is the difference between pluralism and realism

I mostly found it interesting, while reading this, to hear of some of the differences between pluralism and realism. We were all made differently. We all think differently. We all act differently. And that is the definition of humanity. See, for example, Raz, op. I discuss further Rawlsian preconditions for justice later. The value-pluralist elements of the burdens of judgement are identified by Crowder, Liberalism and Value Pluralism , pp.

I am grateful to Henry Hardy and to an anonymous reviewer for the Journal for their comments on earlier drafts. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Correspondence to George Crowder. Reprints and Permissions. Crowder, G. J Value Inquiry 53, — Download citation. Published : 12 April Realists deny relativism, because relativists think that obligations are rooted in human opinion. Realists think that people can simply be wrong or mistaken about what their obligations are.

Relativists cannot make sense of that. Pluralism Pluralism is the position that there are many or at least more than one moral values or sources of obligation. It is in contrast with the position that requires that all values and obligations can be fit into nice tidy, neat little boxes, and so arranged that these things can never be in real conflict.

Conflict, in this position let's call it "heirarchicalism" , is nothing more than the result of human limitation.

The film "A Few Good Men" concerned two enlisted marines who were on trial for murder or manslaughter or something. They pleaded "not guilty. Their obligation is always to do whatever their commanding officer tells them to do. Obeying orders is, in the military in the movie the consummate and ultimate military virtue, and whenever this virtue seems to conflict with another of their perceived obligations, obeying orders always trumps the others.