meta-ethics

Question 1

what is a moral cognitivist?

Answer 1

people who hold the belief that there are moral truths

Question 2

what is a non-cognitivist?

Answer 2

we cannot know morality

Question 3

what do moral naturalists believe?

Answer 3

morals are fixed
Goodness is inherent in nature - an observable quality
goodness has its own properties and values
we can treat morality as we treat the observable world

Question 4

what do theological naturalists believe?

Answer 4

we can know right and wrong through observing Gods order in the world
God has put goodness into the world that we can know

Question 5

David Humes argument against moral naturalism

Answer 5

morals are not absolute
morals are a result of human sentiment and passion; reason is impotent when making rules on morality.

Question 6

what is emotivism?

Answer 6

suggests that when we state weather something is good or bad it is just a result of our emotion
morality is entirely relative

Question 7

what is a logical positivist?

Answer 7

rejects the existence of the things that cannot be known through science

Question 8

who were the Vienna circle?

Answer 8

group of philosophers who met between 1924 and 1936 they were logical positivists

Question 9

what are the parts of the verification principle?

Answer 9

synthetic
analytical statements

Question 10

what is a synthetic statement?

Answer 10

can be proven via expeirence

Question 11

who put forward the verification principle?

Answer 11

ayer

Question 12

what is the verification principle?

Answer 12

it is a fundamental doctrine for logical positivists which holds a set of criteria that determines what constitutes meaningful language.

Question 13

what is a logical statement?

Answer 13

analytical - things that are fixed such as maths

Question 14

what is a moral judgement?

Answer 14

an expression of human emotion such as abortion is wrong

Question 15

Example of emotivists?

Answer 15

Ayer
stevenson
Hare

Question 16

what theories go under moral cognitivism?

Answer 16

ethical naturalism
theological naturalism

Question 17

what theories go under non-cognitivism?

Answer 17

Emotivism
prescriptivism

Question 18

what is prescriptivism?

Answer 18

the idea that our expression of morality is just us prescribing how we think other people should behave. We aim to change their behaviour.

Question 19

what is intuitionism?

Answer 19

we cannot define morality but we can know it through our intuition. We can still know good even though it cannot be defined?

Question 20

who developed intuitionism?

Answer 20

Moore

Question 21

who developed prescriptivism?

Answer 21

Stevenson and Hare

Question 22

what does Moore assimilate goodness to?

Answer 22

The color yellow, much like we cannot define yellow but we know it when we see it. This is the same for goodness.

Question 23

who postulated theological naturalism?

Answer 23

Aquinas

Question 24

what is humes is-ought Gap?

Answer 24

• criticises ethical naturalism
• its a fallacy to go from fact to value or is to ought or from a description of how things are to how things should be
• there is a gap between these things
• for example we cannot go from, stealing it taking peoples stuff without a permission (a fact) to this is wring and you ought not to steal.
• therefore our morals are not fact or objective they are values described by our emotion

Question 25

what is naturallistic fallacy?

Answer 25

assuing that something natural is good

Question 26

ethical naturalists

Answer 26

bradley and foot

Question 27

ethical naturalist view

Answer 27

• moral-cognitvists
• there are fixed truths and laws
• goodness and badness can be known
• we can define them
• when we express values we are expressing reality
• a rock is hard
• stealing is bad
  these are the same

Question 28

what did bradley argue?

Answer 28

• ethical statements include propositions that can be empirically verified
• therefore involve reality
• morality rests on certain facts about ourselves,
• our place in society provide us with a measurable
  observable basis for a satisfying life. Our goal is to realise our true self, which we learn through observation.
• We can know objectively and test
  empirically the proposition that ‘honesty is good’ as this means, ‘honesty helps realise
  my potential and my place in society’.

Question 29

what is theological naturalism?

Answer 29

we can know right or wrong because of Gods natural order in the world (aquinas)

Question 30

what is prescriptivism?

Answer 30

• stevenson
• prescribes beliefs to others

Question 31

what is verificationism also called

Answer 31

boo hurrah theory

Question 32

what is the open question argument

Answer 32

If goodness = pleasure
pleasure should be goodness but it is not pleasure is a tautology, true by definition. Wether goodness is something is an open question. Goodness cant be any property. Because we can always question Goodness and change it therefore it cannot be true in nature.

Question 33

what is intuitionism?

Answer 33

• from open closed argument we see goodness cannt be defined
• good doesnt equal anything
• goodness is only itself, sui generis
• much like the colour yellow
• therefore we know good via the faculty of intuitionism
• humans have noi choice to question moral dilemmas
• we apprehend no natural properties
• this is a cognitvist approach

Question 34

is intutionism cognitive

Answer 34

yes