1D: Meta-ethics: Naturalism Flashcards
What is naturalism?
there are objective moral properties of which we have empirical knowledge, but these properties are reducible to entirely non ethical or natural properties (ie needs, wants or pleasures)
What does naturalism claim?
Gods will defines morality (evident in the natural world, primary and secondary precepts)
Example of a theological naturalist
Aquinas
Example of a hedonic naturalist
JS Mill
How does hedonic naturalism define good and bad?
Good = what produces pleasure
Bad = what produces pain
What does it mean to say that ethical facts are not subjective?
They aren’t views/opinions but based on empirical evidence
What does it mean to say that ethical facts are cognitivist?
Knowable - describe a world as objectively true or false
What are non-cognitivist statements?
Express feelings and cannot be checked for truth.
What is the difference between verification and falsification?
Verification = we have the means to verify
Falsification = we have the means to check the falsivity
Name of Bradley’s book
‘Ethical Studies’ (1876)
According to Bradley, when is morality achieved?
Pursuing self realisation and adopt values of community
According to naturalism, how do we discover truth?
through our sense perceptions: hear, smell, touch, taste and logic
What do ethical naturalists believe?
The verifiability/falsifiability of moral statements is linked to the observation of the natural features of moral actions
Three categories of ethical naturalists
- Theological naturalists: goodness linked to the will of God as seen in nature
- Hedonistic naturalists: goodness is a fact of pleasure or happiness
- Teleological naturalists: goodness linked to the proper goal of humankind - eudaimonia
Non-ethical elements for each type of ethical naturalist
- Hedonists = pleasure
- Theological = God’s will
- Virtue = what causes human suffering
How are moral terms understood by ethical naturalists?
By analysis the natural world: since moral laws are objective, they can be observed in the same way that scientific terms are
Who was FH Bradley?
- 19th century philosopher
- part of British Idealist movement (belief in the Absolute: being itself or the being that transcends all other beings)
Who was Bradley influenced by?
Georg Hegel (a German philosopher)
How did Bradley say our moral perspective is determined?
by observing our position in society
Why did Bradley reject hedonism?
Because it does not help us reach a level of self understanding
What did Bradley decide was the best approach to naturalism?
- Pursuing self realisation within the community
- Our place and role within the community provide a satisfying life
- We have to observe our families/wider communities and adopt their values
- This puts us firmly in the concrete universe and offers the best satisfaction
What does Bradley say we need to do to become a good person?
Know our station and fulfil the duties of that station
Challenge: Hume’s Law (Hume’s guillotine)
- written in ‘A Treatise of Human Nature’
- based on the fact that philosophers come to moral conclusions without reasoning
- statements made by ethical naturalists are unreasonable
- you cannot derive an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’ : what IS the case and what OUGHT to be the case are quite different
- you cannot get from a positive factual statement to a prescriptive statement without having an extra step in the middle that isn’t included in the statement
- what we morally ought to do is based on sentiment
- knowledge of facts together with appropriate attitudes prompts action: knowledge of facts alone does not
Challenge: The Naturalist Fallacy (George Moore)
- written in ‘Principia Ethica’
- it is a mistake to try and define the concept of ‘good’ in terms of a natural property
- defining ‘good’ as anything other than itself is to commit the ‘naturalistic fallacy’
- good is “simple, indefinable and unanalysable”
Challenge: Open Question Argument (Moore)
- written in ‘Principia Ethica’
- statements like “it is good to give to charity” rest on further clarification: “because it is charitable”
- this means they are not closed questions
- goodness was a simple property that cannot be defined using other terms
