Meta-ethics mock Vocabulary

Question 1

Cognitivism

Answer 1

Cognitivism in ethics is the view that moral judgements are propositions which can be known—they refer to the world and they have a truth value (true or false).

Question 2

Non-cognitivism

Answer 2

Non-cognitivism is the view that moral judgements cannot be known, because they do not say anything true or false about the world.

Question 3

Realism

Answer 3

Moral realists believe that in some sense moral terms refer to something real, for example pleasure, or happiness, or utility, or the moral law or God’s command. So, from a realist position, morality is discovered.

Question 4

Anti-Realism

Answer 4

Moral anti-realists believe that moral terms do not refer to anything real, but are something else entirely—for example expressions of feeling etc.

Question 5

Emotivism

Answer 5

A non-cognitivist theory of the meaning of moral terms and judgements. In its basic form, emotivism claims that moral judgements do not refer to anything in the world, but are expressions of feelings of approval or disapproval.

Question 6

Empiricism

Answer 6

Our Beliefs and knowledge must be based on experience

Question 7

Intuitionism

Answer 7

A realist theory which claims that we can determine what is right or good according to our moral intuitions. For intuitionists, the terms ‘right’ and ‘good’ do refer to something objective, but they cannot be reduced to naturalistic terms.

Question 8

Is/ought gap

Answer 8

Hume argued that we cannot draw a conclusion which is evaluative (ought) from premises which are purely factual or descriptive.

Question 9

Meta-ethics

Answer 9

Sometimes called ‘second order ethics’, this is the study by moral philosophers of the meaning of moral judgements. This covers issues such as realism, cognitivism, is/ought gap, the naturalistic fallacy etc.

Question 10

Naturalism

Answer 10

The view that we can explain moral concepts, such as good, in naturalistic terms, such as pleasure or happiness.

Question 11

Naturalistic fallacy

Answer 11

G.E Moore attacked Naturalism because he claimed that it committed a fallacy namely of trying to define the indefinable. Moore believed that moral terms such as good could not be defined, and that naturalists tried to define them in naturalistic terms.

Question 12

Prescriptivism

Answer 12

The purpose of moral judgements is to prescribe actions, to urge others to act in a certain way.