Metaethics - Intuitionism Flashcards
who is the philosopher associated?
GE Moore who criticised Bradleys naturalism
what are moral truths?
self evident truths established by our intuition that are self evident so do not need to be established as objective laws as they already exist independently of humans
what is good?
‘good’ is indefinable, a priori knowledge, objective and self evident
how did Moore define ‘good’?
yellow=yellow, good=good
own independent entity that knowable on its own and not through anything else
how do you discover your intuition
gradual awakening towards a revelation to achieve widespread understanding of good which becomes common understanding
disregarding empirical evidence as it doesn’t explain moral oughts’
who is second philosopher?
HA Pritchard
What does Pritchard say?
argued it was the ‘rightness’ and sense of obligation/duty that was the initiuive element of moral thinking
how is intuitionism separate from empirical evidence?
its separated from reason and empirical influence as we know what we ought to do through general moral thinking
what is the first criticism of intuitionism?
there is no actual proof of moral intuition existing
Mackies argues that intuition presents us with implausible oddities and that the argument that because our knowledge is limited we cannot think outside the limits of space and time (which you would need top establish a moral goodness)
what is a second criticism? (implying that moral intuition does exist)
everyone’s intuitions are different so how can you establish universal moral truths of what goodness is when everyone interprets life differently due to culture and up bringing (vary from person to person)
what’s a third criticism of intuitionism?
creates more problems then solves, logical discourse couldn’t deter decisions that no universal agreements means that there are no self evident moral propositions/truths
what does intuition need?
maturity as it can be wrong without
prima facie which are the 7 duties
what type of theory is intuition?
a priori, subjective and cognitive
