Intiutivism

Question 1

Define Intuitionism

Answer 1

The view that ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are objective but indefinable.
Basic moral truths are either self evident or perceived similarly to how our senses experience the physical world.

Question 2

Intiutivists believe…

Answer 2

You cannot reduce goodness to a natural property.
Moral Knowledge is innately or intuitively known with the force of a ‘duty’ to act.
We have a special form of consciousness called intuition that can access knowledge and gain emotional conviction.

Question 3

Moore likens ‘goodness’ to yellow

Answer 3

Yellow may be defined in terms of reflecting light, yet, to someone blind from birth, ‘yellowness’ would be pretty meaningless.
In the same sense, goodness is simple, indefinable and self evident quality.

Question 4

Intuitionism Strengths: Morally realist

Answer 4

It’s Morally realist, believing moral values exist independently of us, offering a sense of moral duty to act.
E.g.Cant say why Nazism is wrong, our obvious intuitive sense tells us it is.
Meaning we can trust our consciousness of moral truths as real, w/o divine command.

Question 5

Intuitionism Strengths: We’re be able to trust our consciousness…

Answer 5

If successful, we can trust our consciousness of moral truths as real.
And w/o divine command, we can have a sense of duties, and objective rights and wrongs.

Question 6

Intuitionism is a….

Answer 6

Cognitive approach.

Question 7

Intuitionism Weaknesses: Personal variation between intuition

Answer 7

The variation between ppl as to what they consider to be self evident is huge.
Unlikely that anything in ethics is self evident, goodness is complex and hard to differentiate.
E.g. Did hitler see the Holocaust as self evident?

Question 8

Intuitionism Weaknesses: Freuds observations

Answer 8

Freud saw that ‘intuition’ was a result of parenting, schooling, culture and society.
E.g. Propaganda spreading fake moral claims would corrupt the intuition.

Question 9

Intuitionism Weaknesses: Non-existent truths

Answer 9

Intuitive moral truths as non-natural, non-physical properties don’t really make sense.
Nothing else in the universe exists in this way.

Question 10

Intuitionism Weaknesses: Humes Weakness

Answer 10

Hume says beliefs don’t motivate us, but desires do.
Desires are subjective, therefore to intuit that pain of others should be avoided, does not motivate me to act in line with it.