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Yes, exactly! The question in relation to things like murder (and other morally charged kinds) is whether a given action should really count as an instance of that kind. And yes, I mean moral wrongness, and agree morality and positive law can come apart.

Btw, I was reacting to this line: “I’m not defending an absolutist view here: there are always conceivable exceptions to any rule.” Which you wrote in the context of discussing procedural rules having little to do with my example, of course.

But I think my point still raises an important question in relation to absolutism per se, and how we understand (absolute) prohibitions in morality in general. Pointing to the murder/killing distinction is just the easiest way to illustrate the point.

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