Meta Ethics (1) Flashcards
Define Meta Ethics?
- Study of meaning and justification of moral ideas
- Focuses analytically on the underlying concepts
What is the issue of defining ‘good’?
- Good can be said to have many meanings, moral and non-moral
- To say a car is good does not refer to its moral qualities where as to call a person good can refer to their moral qualities
- Leads to a question of whether good means anything factual or is it just relative?
What is the is/ought problem as identified by Hume?
- A problem identified by Hume of finding logical justification of ethical judgements from the facts of the world
- We cannot derive what we ought to do from a statement of the facts of a case
Give an example of a syllogism to explain the is/ought problem?
- All men are mortal
- Socrates is a man
- Therefore Socrates is mortal
|- It would be inappropriate to conclude that Socrates ought to be valued, the verb ‘to be’ contains no idea of ‘ought’
Explain how Hume uses the is/ought problem?
- Argues in moral discourse authors speak of facts, e.g human nature
- They then make a leap from these facts and tell us how to behave, Hume argues they have no right to of this
- Hume puts moral judgements of what is right or wrong beyond the possibility of factual descriptions of the world and human reason
Define Naturalism?
- Claim that the term ‘good’ described a natural quality, e.g pleasure
- Overcomes the gap between nature and the ethical
How is Plato’s Form of the Good an example of Naturalism?
- It attempts to fix the meaning of good as a singular, spiritual being
- The forms are meant to have an even greater reality than objects of our perception
- The Forms existence is necessary to allow us to describe things as good and ground our perceptions in reality
- The good is considered a natural fact outside of this world
What is Hedonism?
- The belief that pleasure is the good, ‘good’ and ‘pleasure’ are interchangeable terms
- Note this is Naturalism
Who primarily held the hedonist view point?
- Jeremy Bentham
- A sensible approach in the sense that we usually seek to find pleasure over pain
- However pleasure is also relative to an extent, we all find pleasure in different things and this does change as we grow up
What is the view of hedonist Epicurus?
- Believed in having a happy and contented life living in tranquility
- If pleasure is the good then unpleasant is the evil
- Maintained we must seek the true pleasures, those without a mixture of pain, e.g over-indulgence in alcohol
- We should live simply and wisely, the attitude to pleasure should be the correct one
What is Aristotles view on hedonist Exodus, a student of Plato? (Quote)
- “accepted on the basis of his excellent character… exceptionally self controlled”
- He showed that hedonists do not think pleasure is good, the hedonist holds that pleasure is THE good
- Good and pleasure are synonyms
How does Aristotle argue against hedonism in Book X
- He argues that we seek a life fulfilling activity, one that is good for its own sake
- This activity is merely accompanied by the feeling of pleasure
- Pleasure accompanies good activity like ‘the bloom on the cheek of the youth’
- We do not calculate pleasure before we do an activity, nor do we do activities based on which provides more pleasure
How can naturalism be seen as absolutist?
- If we follow naturalism then the nature of good appears to be a fixed form of absolutism
- Seems as though we should always pursue that fixed good
- E.g pleasure being the fixed good means we should always try and maximise pleasure
How does cultural relativism show that naturalism is not absolutist?
- If we assume that ‘good is approved by my society’ and I live in a society of cannibalism then that is the good
- ## Cannibalism is a natural fact, but in another society it would not be therefore making it relative
What is the Naturalistic Fallacy?
G.E Moore’s term for the alleged error of assuming the good is some natural quality, e.g pleaure
How does Moore use the ‘Open Question Argument’ to show the Naturalistic Fallacy?
- The idea that we can say something has a natural quality yet still ask whether that something is good
- Hedonism argues that pleasure is the good and the two terms can be interchanged
- If I say is illegal racing is pleasant, but is it good?
- Can I then say Illegal racing is good, but is it good?
- Shows how the terms pleasure and good may not be interchangeable as hedonists think
How do Aristotle and Plato argue against hedonisms use of interchangeable terms?
We can talk of a ‘bad pleasure’ but not a ‘bad good’
Define Intuitionism?
- Belief that good is real, but not a natural fact
- Belief that it is grasped by an intuition of the mind, supported by G.E Moore
- Absolutist Moral Theory, Also a cognitive theory
Give Moores example of colour and how he uses this to explain intuitionism? (Quotes)
“we know what yellow is… cannot actually define yellow”
“we know what good is… cannot actually define it”
- Argues good is simply a non-natural property which can easily be recognised
- The same way we perceive colours we can perceive good as it is a non-natural property that is easily recognised
- We know a colour with great certainty, we also know good with great certainty
What philosopher and psychologist was Moore influenced by in his finding of intuitionism?
- Moore was influenced by Franz Bertano
- Developed the idea of intentionality, and that our minds are never neutral observers of the world
- Through this it is natural to observe the world through love and hate, good or bad and this is a natural doing of the mind
Quote G.E Moore on intuitionism?
“we know that a thing is good in itself”
Quote Bertrand Russel in his support of intuitionism in his ‘Problems of Philosophy’?
- “non logical a priori knowledge is knowledge as to ethical value”
- Argues not all a priori is logical or mathematical
- Both believe the ‘good’ is sokmethign that is evident to all and ethical language is a priori
What is the main issue with intuitionism?
- Moore seems to be referring to some odd faculty of the mind that can see non-natural qualities outside of ordinary perception
- Our senses only experience natural qualities
- The ‘good’ we have an idea of could simply be a creation of the mind
Does intuitionism allow ethical discussions?
- Intuitionism does not allow for ethical discussion and debate and provides no greater meaning of figuring our who is right and wrong in each respective situation
- We have no ability to reach a conclusion of whether your view is better/worse than mine or determining what the good is
- G.J Warnock argues intuitionism is a sense of bewilderment that looks like a theory
