Critisism Of Cognitivism (Hume)

Question 1

Explain the criticism’s idea

Answer 1

Hume claims that Moral judgements are not judgements of reason, therefore they are neither true or false.

Question 2

Explain is/ought Gap

Answer 2

Cognitivists think they describe how things are, whereas Hume suggests that they prescribe how thing should be
There is a gap between ‘is’ and ‘ought’ in the world.
P1. Stealing is taking someone property without permission (fact)
P2. Taking someone property without permission is illegal (fact)
P3. You ought not to steal (value)

Yup can’t get a statement of value out of a statements of fact

Question 3

Explain the Argument from Motivation

Answer 3

Objective facts are different from individual desires.

To simply know that something is right/wrong is not in itself sufficient to motivate e.g killing is wrong doesn’t stop some people form killing OR the belief that it is raining outside will not motivate me to take an umbrella , unless I don’t want to get wet.

Question 4

Outline the criticism of the Argument from Motivation

Answer 4

Beliefs can influence us

PSHE teaches us facts (drugs are bad) => we form a belief that it’s bad an we don’t take them

Question 5

What is the counter-criticism for the criticism of argument from motivation ?

Answer 5

People still go on acting like they used to regardless of facts they are given

Question 6

Explain Hume’s Fork

Answer 6

P1: There are 2 judgements of reason (relation of ideas, matter of fact)
P2: Moral judgements are not relations of ideas
P3: Moral judgements are not matters of fact
C: Moral judgements are not judgements of reason

P2 — There is nothing in the idea of killing that is wrong, it is not true by definition
P3 — you can’t identify a fact i.e you don’t experience the wrongness when you witness murdering, you only see facts - blood, corpse etc.
C — Moral judgements can’t be true or false

Question 7

Explain the criticism of Hume’s Fork (both views: naturalism and intuitionism)

Answer 7

1. Naturalism => reduced to natural properties => matters of fact
2. Intuitionism => moral knowledge is neither relations of ideas nor matters of fact, it is a priori synthetic (empirical) knowledge - 3rd type.