Error Theory and Expressivism, Nihilistic Analogies

This topic of conversation concerns Nihilism as seen represented in two recent works of art, movies K-Pax and The Purge. According to Shafer-Landau, moral nihilism approaches morality as "make believe, a complex set of rules and recommendations that represents nothing real." (p. 308) In essence, nihilists believe that value claims cannot be factual and, therefore, are false. 

My focus will be on Error Theory and Expressivism, both branches of nihilism. Error theory is a metaphysical theory that attempts to show that morality is not objective and that it cannot provide us with categorical reasons. Obviously, this theory attempts to describe how the world works and how morality should be defined. Even though we guide ourselves by moral principles, we cannot prove that morality is objective or categorical. Expressivism is derived from these claims, but differs in the purpose of moral expression. According to expressivism, we are not trying to report the moral features of society, moral expression is purely emotional. I will use the following two examples as analogies that try to further explain the idea of nihilism, specifically error theory and expressivism, and how they would be applied to society.

The movie K-Pax essentially disproves theism of any form when prot, a being from another universe in the body of a human, seems to have supernatural powers and higher understanding, such as those attributed to a deity. Psychiatrists fail to ascribe him an illness as proves that he comes from a galaxy located millions of light years away and that he can take any form he desires. In essence, he is a god. However, his workings are not mysterious; they are all factual and based on scientific truths. His presence on Earth confirmed the existence of theism and it backed it with factual claims. In this respect, K-Pax serves as an analogy to disprove nihilism and error theory. In terms of morality, an event similar to that of the movie would result in establishing factual claims about moral attributes, as well as establishing a structure for morality. Basically, it would explain morality scientifically. This is not the case however, we cannot identify objective truths about morality in our world; it is impossible to assert if something is true or false, and it is equally difficult to create moral rules without moral knowledge.

In another example, the movie The Purge depicts the United States in 2023, where the new governmental regime allows for 12 hours of legal crime once a year. During 364 days of the year actions such as murder, rape and theft are illegal and punishable. However, the same society that deems these actions as criminal actions legalizes them for 12 hours. What is the verdict here? Can we be sure that murder is moral or immoral? According to this society we can't, there is no objective moral standard to which we can compare this scenario, so there is no way to determine the morality of such actions. This is just an expression of emotions which influences our actions. This illustrates expressivism quite closely. To quote Shafe-Landau, "expressivists want a way to have confidence in morality while rejecting ethical objectivity." (p. 314) This society does precisely that when it states that crime is both legal and illegal since it's not subject to an all-comprehensive moral code; this society simply expresses its emotions through moral decisions and actions without seeking the absolute truth, much like the theory of expressivism.