Meta ethics Flashcards
What is meta ethics
theory based on whether moral statements such as good and bad actually exist
what is a cognitive statement
statements about an action being wrong or right can be proven
what is a non cognitive statement
statements about an action being wrong or right are subjective
what ethical theories are cognitive
naturalism, intuitionism
what ethical theory is non cognitive
emotivism
What is naturalism
cognitive, realist theory that states we are able to see what is right and what is wrong in the world
what 2 philosophers are naturalists
aquinas and john stuart mill
How does aquinas propose naturalism
through natural law, aquinas suggests that the world has a God given natural order that we can see through reasoning and observation, everything in the world has a purpose and if it is able to achieve its telos we can see how good it is
What is an issue with this type of thinking
Telos is a scam, not everything has a telos and even if it does we cant assume what is it- naturalistc fallacy due to assumptions
What is john stuart mills approach to naturalism
utilitarianism, certain actions lead to pleasure and other actions lead to pain- shows us what is right and wrong, humans try to go for the actions that lead to the most pleasure showing us that good is desirable and therefore must exist.
What is intuitionism
Moral statements do exist but we cant observe them in the world, we just know it - its innate
what are opened and closed questions
closed questions are open to only one type of answer, open questions are open to a variety of answers
how does moore use open and closed questions to reject naturalism
“is what brings us pleasure always good” if pleasure is good , the answer ought to be yes, however this is an open question
what philosopher is associated with intuitionism
GE Moore
What does Moore say about “good”
it is known but we arent able to define it because it is too simple, he uses the example of the colour yellow, ask us if we know the colour yellow and we will say yes but if you ask us to describe it we wouldnt know how to
What is a strength of this approach
its based on fact value and doesnt try use observation through the world.
What is emotivism
emotivism is a non cognitivst, anti realist approach that states moral statements are meaningless as theyre soley based on emotion
what philosophers are associated with emotivism
AJ Ayers and David Hume
How does AJ Ayers downplay moral statements
Moral statements arent analytic as they arent true by definition and arent synthetic as they cant be verified with observation, this means they have no meaning and are not cognitive
what are the two types of knowledge hume suggests we have
priori, posteriori
What was macintyres disagreement with meta ethics
society has dismantled key ethical terms such as telos, many philosophers have taken existentialist views and believe theres no ultimate purpose so discussion of moral ideas are doomed to fail
