Term coined by the English philosopher Simon Blackburn (1944– ) to identify a position holding that an expressivist or projectivist account of ethics can explain and make legitimate sense of the realist -sounding discourse within which we promote and debate moral views. This is in opposition to writers who think that if projectivism is correct then our ordinary ways of thinking in terms of a moral truth, or of knowledge, or the independence of ethical facts from our subjective sentiments, must all be in error, reflecting a mistaken realist metaphysics. The quasi-realist seeks to earn our right to talk in these terms on the slender, projective basis. The possibility of quasi-realism complicates the methodology of realist/anti-realist debates in many areas.
Philosophy dictionary. Academic. 2011.