Metaethics Flashcards
What are the four main metaethical views?
moral realism, moral anti-realism, cognitivism, and non-cognitivism
What is moral realism?
the view that moral properties exist. moral properties such as moral goodness, badness, rightness, and wrongness are real properties. Just as a person can have a moral property of being tall or small, they can have a moral property of being good or bad. Moral properties are thus real, objective features of people and actions.
What is cognitivism?
moral language is descriptive. moral statements describe things as having moral properties. ‘murder is wrong’ describes murder as having the moral property of being wrong. since descriptions can be true or false, cognitivism claims that moral statements can be true or false. Most cognitivists are realists. they think that moral statements describe things as having moral properties, and these really exist.
What is moral anti-realism?
moral properties do not exist. moral goodness, badness, rightness, and wrongness are not real properties because they do not exist. Some cogntivists are anti-realsits, they think that moral statements describe things as having moral properties, and that these properties do not exist.
What is non-cognitivism?
moral language is not descriptive, moral statements do not describe things as having moral properties, but rather express feelings or attitudes, moral statements express attitudes of approval and disapproval. ‘murder is wrong’ expresses disapproval of murder. These statements mean something like ‘boo murder’. since attitudes cant be true or false, non-cognitivism denies that moral sentences can be true or false.
