Meta-ethics Flashcards
Outline meta-ethics
Meta-ethics concerns attempts to answer what goodness is and the nature and purpose of morality.
Outline Divine Command Theory
Divine Command Theory posits that what is moral, is what God commands. Therefore a fundamentalist approach to scripture would see the bible as a sole authoritative source of morality and thus live in accordance with the will of God.
John Calvin advocates for this position arguing “The will of God is the supreme rule of righteousness”
DVT - objective/limits person responsibility
Morality is independent of fallible human reason which can misunderstand situations. God being an unchanging objective source of morality safeguards this issue and provides theists clear guidelines of how to live ethically.
This means that theists following DVT are morally heteronomous and thus are influenced by an external source to guide their moral behaviour. This arguably hinders personal growth and limits personal moral responsibility.
DVT - Euthyphro dilemma
Independence problem - If God commands something because it is good, that means morality is independent of God, subsequently limiting his omnipotence and removes any need for a God.
Arbitrariness problem - If God decides what is moral this results in morality no longer being objective but rather something subject to God’s whims. This could lead to arbitrary morality and justify actions that are inherently wrong.
Not relevant to a secular society
Divine command theory is rooted in theism and therefore not applicable to those who don’t believe in God. Scripture was developed in a patriarchal context and so not relevant to a more progressive society. Leviticus commands homosexual acts to be punished by death “if a man lies with a male as with a woman they shall be put to death.” However, human rights laws protect the rights of all citizens.
DVT - religious pluralism
DVT is not inherently Christian, with Judaism and Islam holding similar beliefs. However, different religions make conflicting claims on the nature of God and what God commands. Therefore how is to be decided which of God’s commands are to be followed.
Similarly to this, scripture is often cherry-picked with conflicting views on which of God’s commands are relevant. For example rules in the old-testament of not wearing linen and wool are not followed by Christians but are by Jews. Therefore, DVT is arguably not objective if only some commands are being followed.
Outline Naturalism
Naturalism is a realist cognitive ethical theory which posits that morality can be found via empirical observation of the natural world. Therefore, what is natural to us can be seen as moral.
Utilitarianism is a naturalist theory; as an ethical naturalist, Bentham states that “nature has placed mankind under two governing sovereign masters of pain and pleasure” therefore as it is our natural inclination to seek pleasure and avoid pain, moral behaviour is that which maximises pleasure and minimises pain.
Utilitarianism shows that naturalism is a realist theory as it suggests moral properties can be reduced down to natural ones; goodness can be simplified to pleasure and badness can be reduced to pain.
NML is grounded in theological naturalism; Aquinas asserts that there is a natural, God given order of the world and thus deduces that human reason can discern moral values through the primary precepts that are derived from this natural order. The primary precepts are universal and objective and therefore exist independently.
Evaluate the objectivity of naturalism
Asserts that morality is objective and can be understood through observation of the natural world. This suggests that morality is has a real basis in the world rather than being arbitrary or a matter of subjectivity. Therefore, moral behaviour can arguably be verified by observing the effects it has in the world. Moreover, by making morality an objective truth rather than a matter of personal opinion, naturalism allows for a universal standard to be applied to everyone.
Nevertheless, Hume’s “is/ought” argument outlines how naturalism commits a failure in logic by jumping from a statement of fact to one of value. This means there is difference from what is factually observed and what we believe ought to happen from these observations. Therefore, this shows moral judgements are not objective as they are not something which can be deduced from facts as they originate from non-cognitive personal feelings.
Naturalism - weakness #2
G.E Moore criticises naturalism of committing the naturalistic fallacy by assuming something is good just because it is natural to us; this is a jump in logic by deducing something to be true based off its premise.
Naturalism is also reductionist by simplifying morality down to solely natural properties. This ignores the complexities that can be involved in ethical judgements and the subjective experiences, cultural contexts and abstract ideals which influence them, such influences which cannot be reduced to natural facts.
Outline Intuitionism
Intuitionism posits that morality is something that is self evident and intuitively known without any processing of reason or empirical evidence.
G.E Moore argues goodness cannot be defined but it is recognised, “good is good”
Evaluate Intuitionism
Explanatory power: the theory of intuitionism resonates with the human experience of having a “gut feeling” and intuitively knowing how to respond in certain moral judgements without any explicit reasoning. Similarly, there seems to be universal agreements on certain morals ie: justice and murder, thereby indicating their are certain moral absolutes and truths.
Nevertheless, if these moral truths were self-evident, we wouldn’t see such moral disagreement. Even concepts such as justice are exercised in radically different ways dependent on culture.
As a cognitivist theory, intuitionism posits that morality exists objectively, however emotivists would argue that ethical statements are merely expressions of emotion and opinion. These emotions are subject to our upbringings, cultural influences etc:
Outline emotivism
As a non-cognitive theory, emotivism argues morality does not exist objectively as it is merely an expression of human emotion. Therefore, statements about whether something is good or bad is just conveying a personal preference.
Logical positivist, AJ Ayer held this view towards morality arguing “the presence of an ethical symbol in a proposition adds nothing to its factual content”
Evaluate emotivism
Promotes social acceptance - if morality is a non-cognitive concept and thus can’t be verified nor falsified, others’ moral beliefs cannot be discredited. This arguably promotes greater acceptance of the diversity in moral opinions we see. Beliefs on morality are simply another subjective issue such as culinary or musical tastes.
