1E: Intuitionism

Question 1

What is intuitionism?

Answer 1

• it is famously associated with G.E. Moore.
• Intuitionism is also known as ‘Ethical Non-Naturalism’ – this is because, unlike Naturalism, it does not believe that ethical propositions can be verified from an empirical study of the natural world.

Question 2

Overview of intuitionism:

Answer 2

• Intuitionists argues that moral agents use ethical language, such as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, as expressions of their ‘moral intuition’.
• Intuitionists, such as Moore, argued that moral agents naturally possess a moral intuition (sometimes called ‘a sixth sense’) that intuitively recognises ‘good’ and ‘bad’ i.e. humanity has a natural ability to recognise what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’.
• Moore argued that our moral intuition is an innate ability possessed by all moral agents. However, Moore concedes he does not know why we have it or the intricate details of how it works. - However, Moore is clear that it is not human reasoning that is rationally working out what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’. Moral intuition is just a faculty of knowing, or sensing, without the use of a rational processes i.e. ‘you just know’.
• For example, we intuitively recognise ‘good’ in the same way we intuitively recognise ‘love’; we just know it, but we cannot explain why.

Question 3

Intuitionism - what is good?

Answer 3

• When intuitionists argue that we intuitively recognise ‘good’ what do they mean by ‘good’?
• Moore firstly argues that ‘good’ does not mean we intuitively recognise good actions or even good consequences.
• Instead what we intuitively recognise are ‘intrinsic goods’ i.e. things that are good in themselves. - Moore highlights two particular goods that are intrinsically good: friendship and aesthetic beauty.
• However, he concedes there are other ‘goods’ that the intuition recognises but they are not 100% intrinsically good. They are instead ‘mixed’ due to the complexity of the natural world.

Question 4

Intuitionism - objective and universal:

Answer 4

Intuitionists, like Moore, believe that human innate moral intuition is the same in all people. There are two important outcomes of this:
+ Universal: Moral intuition is universal therefore it will apply the same to all people e.g. we would all recognise ‘friendship’ as intrinsically good.
+ Objective: Because moral intuition is universal it is not reliant upon human opinion, upbringing or preference i.e. it is objective and not subjective.

Question 5

Is intuitionism cognitive?

Answer 5

• Clearly, Intuitionism is not cognitive in the same way that Naturalism is i.e. Naturalism is objective because it proofs its ethical propositions using empirical evidence.
• However, as we have seen, above, Intuitionism is still objective – therefore it is cognitive i.e. intuitivism is a cognitive because ethical language is meaningful because it is objective.

Question 6

Intuitionism is not something the same as common sense:

Answer 6

• it could be argued that this is fact just common sense (or self-evident truths)
• Intuitionists, like Moore, would dispute this. This is because they would argue our moral intuition reveals objective moral truths, whereas a person’s common sense is subjective i.e. two people could disagree on what is a self-evident truth.

Question 7

Prichard’s contribution to intuitionism:

Answer 7

H.A. Prichard (1871-1947) created a version of Intuitionism, in his 1912 paper: ‘Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?’

Question 8

Prichard in relation to Moore:

Answer 8

• Prichard agreed with Moore’s intuitionist principles that ethical language terms, like ‘good’, were indefinable, yet recognisable through our intuition.
• He also accepted that intuition is an innate ability that is universal to all moral agents.
• However, Prichard did not accept that Moore’s theory that our intuition reveals ‘intrinsic goods’ and that our duty was to do actions that create the most ‘intrinsic good’ consequences.

Question 9

Overview of Prichard’s theory:

Answer 9

• Prichard’s focus was on the term ‘ought to do’. Like Moore’s Naturalistic Fallacy criticism of ethical terms, like ‘good’, Prichard believed that ‘ought’ is not a complex term and therefore had no definition - like the yellow, good etc. Therefore, moral agents cannot empirically study what they ‘ought’ to do.
• However, Prichard observed that moral agents were still able to intuitively recognise what they ‘ought to do’ in a moral dilemma. Therefore, our intuition does not recognise ‘intrinsic goods’, as Moore argued, it instead recognises what I ‘ought’ when faced with a moral dilemma
• Prichard argued that once our intuition indicted what action a moral agent ‘ought to do’ in a moral situation; then it became our duty to carry out that action i.e. the ‘ought to do’ becomes a ‘must do’.
• This means that our sense of duty comes from our intuition. This is in contrast to Moore, who believed our intuition recognised ‘intrinsic goods’ should be applied teleologically.

Question 10

Difference between general thinking and moral thinking:

Answer 10

• General Thinking (Reasoning): moral agents use reason to assess the facts of a moral situation e.g. a woman is 12 weeks pregnant and is considering an abortion.
• Moral Thinking (Intuition): a moral agent carrying out their duty by following their immediate intuition about a particular moral situation to do e.g. deciding intuitively whether the action of abortion is right in this situation.
• He argues the only place for general thinking (reasoning) in ethics is to confirm our moral thinking (intuition)

Question 11

What are challenges to intuitionism?

Answer 11

• no proof that moral intuition exists
• intuitive ‘truths’ can differ widely
• no obvious way to resolve conflicting intuitions

Question 12

No proof that moral intuition exists:

Answer 12

• Intuitionists fail to explain why an innate universal moral intuition exists in all humanity.
• there is no reason why human intuition should be taken as the basis of moral language
• J.L. Mackie argued that intuitionism was so implausible and odd that is made the whole theory ‘queer’. In fact, he refers to it as ‘the argument from queerness’
• Moreover, some scholars have suggested that an innate universal ‘intuitionism’ does not exist and suggest alternative explanations for the sense of ‘intrinsic good’
• a religious person may believe moral intuition is the voice of God guiding them

Question 13

Intuitive ‘truths’ can differ widely:

Answer 13

• There is strong evidence to suggest that there is no universal innate intuition because of the variety of moral ‘truths’ moral agents have.

Question 14

No obvious way to resolve conflicting intuitions:

Answer 14

• The issue here is that If two people faced with the same moral dilemma have different intuitions about what they ‘ought to’ do, how do you decide which intuition is correct?
• Therefore, intuitionism takes a very monist view i.e. it has one solution to ethical language. For example, Prichard’s Intuitionism states it is our duty to follow what we intuitively feel we ‘ought to’ do, however, if there is moral disagreement Intuitionism offers no ‘plan B’.