Metaethics Flashcards
What is meta ethics
Concentrated on meaning and use of ethical language
How we come to know morals
Two approaches to meta ethics
Cognitive - objective / moral realists
Ethical naturalism and instrumentalism and intuitionism
Non- cognitive - subjective / anti realist
Emotivists
What is ethical naturalism
Developed from empiricism - David Hume
Absolutis that rage we create moral theories based on observations of the word
Who was F.H. Bradley
Naturalist
Argued good is maximisation and minimisation of painful consequences
Good can be defined and is universal
Language represents facts so is universal, can prove true or false
Uses empirical evidence
Critique of naturalism
Naturalistic fallacy G.E.Moore
Identifying goodnes with a natural quality error because goodness can’t be defined
W.D Ross opinion
Goodness is simple and un analysable
Intuitionists beliefs
Infallible intuitive knowledge of what is right
Who were intuitionists and what did they say
HA Pritchard and Moore
Pritchard moral thoughts used reason to obtain facts and intuition makes the decision
Language is not meaningful as terms can’t be design ties
Moore even if we did define does help naturalistic fallacy and still difference between facts and values
Emotivist view
Any moral claim is an emotional plea from who express it to share approval or disapproval and so others can adopt same feeling
Boo hurrah theory
Rejects naturalism
Who was an emotivist and what did they say
A
A.J.Ayer
Influenced by Hume and Vienna Circle
Verification principle - verification was the meaning of a statement
Ethical claims are to provoke other peoples response emotionally
Meaningful to an extent/ Used in groups - catholics
Who was an emotivist and what did they say
c
C.L.Stevsenson
Moral words have entire meanings but not analytical or descriptive
Useful to express opinion to influence others behaviours
Express beating up is bad and a sin - less likely to do it
