So , metaethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with foundational questions in ethics what is the nature of moral language , is there such a thing as objective right and wrong , etc . There are two major positions you can take in metaethics moral realism and moral antirealism . Moral realism is the claim that there is at least one true mindindependent moral claim so , moral realism is a belief in objective right and wrong , basically . Moral antirealism is the denial of moral realism . Antirealism is divided into two major camps , noncognitivism and error theory there are some other antirealist views like quasirealism , but I don ' t think they ' re as important . Noncognitivism is the view that moral claims are not the sort of claims that are capable of being true or false at all , much like someone exclaiming boo ! in disapproval is not an utterance that is capable of being true or false . Error theory is the view that all moral claims are false . Noncognitivism is stupid and error theory is obviously superior . The morals as aesthetics view goes pretty well with any variety of antirealism . Moral realism is also divided into a few different camps , based on what you think the ontological status of moral facts is . If you look up the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy articles on moral realism and moral antirealism , they ' ll have more information . I am a bit hesitant to reduce people down to a simple leftvsright dichotomy , and say that one side likes X and the other likes Y and that ' s the essence of each side , but I do think you ' re on the right track in your assessment . The leftist vision of utopia is one of pure compassion and equality , while rightists , if you press them hard enough , would probably reject such a vision . They intuitively feel that struggle and hardship are necessary for greatness , and so kindness and cruelty are forever destined to exist in some interminable Hegelian dialectic , if we are to maintain what is valuable in life . Or something like that . Whatever . To be a bit more grounded , I think leftists are much more conscientious about showing compassion to their outgroup or what they think is their outgroup , anyway , while rightists are willing to be more consciously exclusionary about who is a target of compassion .