Mackie claims that values are not objective, such that it includes both moral goodness and moral values/disvalues such as rightness, wrongness, duty, obligation, etc. The view that Mackie is adopting may be called moral skepticism which is a name used for the two first order views which can also consist of an unclear mixture of these two views; it is an ontological thesis which are neither linguistic or conceptual. Moral skepticism must take on the form of an error theory. The first and second order views are independent meaning that one could be a second order moral sceptic without being a first order and vice versa. The alternative to moral scepticism is subjectivism where everyone does what he thinks he should. The doctrine of moral subjectivism
