Meta Ethics Definitions Flashcards
What is epistemology?
The theory of knowledge, including the origin of knowledge, the roles of experience and reason in generating knowledge and the validity of knowledge.
What is ethical naturalism?
The belief that moral laws can be verified through observation of the natural world.
What is realism?
The belief that concepts have value in and of themselves, which is independent of the human mind, of opinions or of feelings.
What is cognitivism?
The belief that moral truths exist and that ethical statements can be verified empirically.
What is anti-realism?
Rejection of the idea that things have an intrinsic value independent of the human mind.
What is non-cognitivism?
The belief that moral truths are matters of personal choice and do not exist independent of human experiences.
What is a proposition?
A statement or assertion that expresses a judgement or opinion.
What does empirical mean?
Based on observation or experience rather than theory.
What is the naturalistic fallacy?
The idea that just because nature acts in a certain way it does not follow that this is how things ought to be.
What is intuitionism?
Belief that ethical propositions are true or false and known by intuition.
What is logical positivism
The belief that the only meaningful philosophical problems are those which can be solved by logical analysis.
What is the verification principle?
Statements are only valid if they can be verified or deduced from empirical data.
What is an analytic statement?
A statement that only requires the words within it to verify whether it is true or false.
What is a synthetic statement?
A statement which requires external information, usually empirical data, to verify whether it is true or false.
What is emotivism?
The idea that moral judgements are expressions of the moral agent’s feelings rather than statements of fact.
