THE LATTER IS NOT MORALITY, JUST FEELINGS:

In embracing core moral values and taking a moral stance on important issues we see ourselves as at least trying to get something right--something it matters greatly that we do get right, central to how we structure our lives and find meaning in them.

That is at least what moral practice is like when viewed "from the inside." By that I mean your moral phenomenology as an engaged participant. This perspective presents the appearance of at least a core of basic objective and universally valid or correct moral standards we are trying to understand and to live by (even as we recognize that we will at best do so imperfectly). This is why we're prepared to argue, often passionately, in defense of basic moral claims about social justice, for example, in a way we don't with mere matters of taste; and it's why we feel compelled to modify our views when someone convinces us that we have a blind spot or other error in our moral outlook.

There is, however, another perspective from which morality may be viewed and examined, where such ideas of correct moral standards, or of the truth of moral claims, are not even on the radar. Here, morality is approached "from the outside," as a set of empirical phenomena alongside others. The goal here is to understand the factors--from evolutionary biology, psychology, sociology, and so on--that have caused us to develop and use moral concepts, to have certain feelings, and to make certain judgments and be motivated by them.1,2

From this perspective, your moral judgments about the insurrection, or about some racist or sexist policy, are viewed as objects of study rather than as candidates for truth or falsity. The scientist is not here engaging with philosophical issues about the potential accuracy of moral claims. The scientist instead approaches your judgments simply as psychological facts about you, causally traceable to various influences--just as with the thoughts and feelings that led to the social injustices you're responding to.

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