Meta-ethics Flashcards
Intuitionism
A view that moral statement can be known to be true or false immediately through a kind of rational intuition
However this can countered by saying that objective moral truths can’t and don’t exist
Intuitionism
Hume
‘Principia ethica’- Good cannot be defined
E.g the colour yellow is just a colour and cannot be argued whether or not it is good
No moral judgement can be made from that statement
Intuitionism
Pritchard
Moral obligations from immediate apprehensions (moths)
No need for further explanations
Objective duty
Ethical naturalism
(Aquinas)
Morals can be explained in natural terms, or denied and supported the observations of the natural world
Moore: ethical naturalism = bad idea
Ethical non-naturalism
Bradley argues that goodness is a natural aspect of society
However this can give a narrow account of goodness
Moore: defining goodness in terms of natural facts is mistaken referring to this as a ‘naturalistic fallacy’
Emotivism
A.J. Ayer
Moral judgements do not function as statements but rather as expression of the writers/ speakers feelings
Emotivism
Stevenson
A theory of ethical language according to which moral judgement don’t state any fact, instead an expression of emotions to influence
Emotivism
Criticisms
Kant and Natural law: says that good is innate within us and would be more in line with intuitionism to intuition however Natural law says that the good is known (real/apparent)
‘Is - ought gap’
More
More: morals aren’t innate/natural, they are non-cognitive/ not-facts- have to be learnt
is-ought gap: when one makes a claim about what is ought to be that are based solely on statements about what it is
‘Is - ought gap’
Hume
Fundamentally there is a difference between morals and facts
There is no such thing as a moral fact
Conclusions are based off of evidence
Just because something is something doesn’t mean it ought to be this way
Definitions
Meta-ethics: the study of underlying ethical ideas or ethical language- what is the meaning of good
Moral relativism: the beliefs that there are moral facts in the same way that there are scientific facts
Moral anti-realism: the belief that moral propositions don’t refer to objective features of the world at all- no moral facts
Cultural relativism: people’s beliefs differ from culture to culture
Normative: moral facts themselves differ dependent on culture
Intuitionism
More
‘Good is good and that is the end of the matter’
Indefinable and good a completely simple idea
Yellow can only be known and that’s all there is to it
We don’t explain it in terms of something else
Goodness is the same; you can’t explain it any further
We have an intuitive sense of right and wrong
However one cannot prove intuition and our intuitions may be wrong
(weak position)
