Naturalism

Question 1

Absolutism

Answer 1

The view that morals are fixed, unchanging truths that everyone should always follow

Question 2

Relativism

Answer 2

The view that moral truths are not fixed and are not absolute. What is right changes according to the individual, the situation, the culture, the time and the place

Question 3

Naturalism

Answer 3

Ethical theories that hold that morals are part of the natural world and can be recognised or observed in some way

Question 4

Intuitionism

Answer 4

Ethical theories that hold that moral knowledge is received in a different way from science and logic

Question 5

Vienna Circle

Answer 5

A group of philosophers known as logical positivists who rejected claims that moral truths can be verified as objectively true

Question 6

Emotivism

Answer 6

Ethical theories that hold that moral statements are not statements of fact but are either beliefs or emotions

Question 7

Hume’s Law

Answer 7

You cannot go from an ‘is’ (A statement of fact) to and ‘ought’ (a moral)

Question 8

Naturalistic Fallacy

Answer 8

G.E Moore’s argument that it is a mistake to define moral terms with reference to other properties (a mistake to break Hume’s law)

Question 9

What would an absolutist say about killing a person?

Answer 9

if killing a person is wrong, then for an absolutist it is always wrong for everyone to kill a person.

Question 10

Relativism and absolutism do not disagree about what is moral; they disagree about …

Answer 10

what it means to make a moral statement of any kind

Question 11

Meta ethics

Answer 11

1. relates to the modern philosophical debate surrounding the language of ethics.
2. it is concerned with whether moral utterances refer to fix truth or facts, as with ethical absolutism, or are relative to something like emotions or beliefs, as with relativism.
3. it is also concerned with how we come to know morals – whether it is through some sort of knowing through our senses and observations (as with other observable things), a special kind of intuitive knowing, or whether there is no knowledge in morality at all.

Question 12

Naturalism

Answer 12

1. an ethical theory that holds that morals are fixed absolutes in the universe and they can, consequently, be recognised or observed.
2. Naturalists, such as F.H. Bradley and Philippa Foot, believe that morals can be perceived in the world in the same way that other features of the world are identified.
3. Naturalism can be linked to absolutism, the theory that there are mixed fixed moral norms.

Question 13

Give 2 examples of Naturalists

Answer 13

F.H. Bradley

Philippa Foot

Question 14

Intuitionism

Answer 14

1. beginning with the work of G.E. Moore in his book ‘Principia Ethica’. More rejects Naturalism’s presumption that you can simply see right and wrong in the social order, instead suggesting that morality is perceived through a different mechanism; Intuition.
2. H.A. Prichard is an intuitionist who defined the way people intuit (detect or perceive) the moral dimension.
3. the intuitionist W.D Ross accepted that moral principles cannot be absolute, but advanced a theory to justify moral duties, based around character.
4. Intuitionist philosophers have contributed to deeper insights into what is meant by the term good.

Question 15

Give 2 examples of Intuitionists

Answer 15

1. G.E. Moore

2. H.A. Prichard

Question 16

Empiricists hold that morals arise from… what?

Answer 16

human sentiment, not things that are observed

Question 17

What does A.J. Ayer say in his book Language, Truth, Logic?

Answer 17

represents a departure from the claim that moral language has some kind of absolute meaning

Question 18

Who did A.J. Ayer ‘belong’ to?

Answer 18

The Vienna Circle

Question 19

Who did Vienna Circle get their thinking from?

Answer 19

David Hume

Question 20

What was Ayer? (+why)

Answer 20

ethical non-naturalist because he rejected claims that ethics can be seen in the natural world.

he was an EMOTIVIST because he held that moral statements are an emotional outburst in favour of, or against, something. Morals are relative to emotions and therefore have no fixed meaning he believed

Question 21

Who developed Ayer’s ideas?

Answer 21

C.L. Stevenson

Question 22

What did C.L. Stevenson believe?

Answer 22

that moral judgments are linked to our beliefs about morals rather than simply emotional outburst

Question 23

Meta ethical theory example of relativism?

Answer 23

emotivism!

Question 24

Are ethical naturalists absolutist or not?

Answer 24

Ethical naturalists are absolutist.

Question 25

What does Naturalism say about morals?

Answer 25

They hold that moral evil and goodness are absolute facts of the natural world, like other kinds of facts.

They are fixed things that do not change according to situation, results or cultural practice. Morals are not about ‘your point of view’ or ‘my opinion’ but are objectively true.

So when someone says, ‘euthanasia is evil or everyone has human rights’, ethical naturalists argue that they are expressing a moral truth, part of the reality of the universe, and not an opinion.

Question 26

Historically, naturalism linked claims about moral truth to….

Answer 26

the rise of modern science on the idea that truths about the world we live in can be proved.

Question 27

Bradley went on stating that our duty…

Answer 27

is;

1. universal and concrete
2. it is objective with real identity
3. it realizes the whole person, teaching us to ‘identify others and ourselves within the station we fill; to consider that as good, by virtue of that to consider others and ourselves good too’ (Ethical Studies, 1876)

Question 28

According to Naturalists, ethics is something that can be explained by … (hint: observation!)

Answer 28

the concrete absolute reality we observe; in much the same way we observe other things in the universe. The particular focus is on the place we hold in society which directs what we should do

Question 29

Bradley represented the naturalism of the _____ century

Answer 29

19th

Question 30

Bradley represented the naturalism of the 19th century, but there are conceptual links to…

Answer 30

the natural moral law of Aquinas and his argument that we can look to the world and perceive morals from the purposes of life that we see in the world

Question 31

Theological naturalists, such as …

Answer 31

Thomas Aquinas

Question 32

Theological naturalists, such as Thomas Aquinas, link goodness to…

Answer 32

divine will and the kind of creatures God has made humans to be. For these creatures, adultery is wrong, as it limits or prevents human flourishing.

Question 33

Hedonic naturalists link goodness to…

Answer 33

pleasure or happiness the thing that causes happiness is right; moral statements are justified by some other thing.

Question 34

Bradley claims that morals are …… as part of the concrete world. The social order and your position in that order decides…..

Answer 34

1. OBSERVABLE

2. your duties.

Question 35

Bradley believes the social order and your position in that order decides your duties.

WHAT KEY Q DOES THIS RAISE?

Answer 35

The position you hold in a community is not an incidental thing, it is a structure of reality, but is it correct to interpret the social order as a fixed fact?

Question 36

Why may it NOT correct to interpret the social order as a fixed fact?

Answer 36

The 20th century saw radical changes in many Western countries, while the roles of men and women changed and where hierarchy social rules came under significant pressure.

The idea of individual freedom, self determination and equality for all undermined concepts of class, fixed gender roles and institutions such as marriage.

Bradley’s fixed moral social order is, therefore highly questionable.

Question 37

WEAKNESS OF BRADLEY’S (NAURALISM) - believing social order is a fixed fact

Answer 37

The 20th century saw radical changes in many Western countries, while the roles of men and women changed and where hierarchy social loads came on the significant pressure.

The idea of individual freedom of self determination and equality for all undermined concepts of class, fixed gender roles and institutions such as marriage.

Bradley’s fixed moral social order as, therefore highly questionable.

Question 38

COUNTER ARGUMENT to WEAKNESS OF BRADLEY’S (NAURALISM) - believing social order is a fixed fact

Answer 38

However, social orders fixed to absolute ideas about right and wrong seems to remain a feature of much of the rest of the world and among many migrant communities in Western countries.

The breakdown of social order in western society is linked to family breakdown until marriage breakdown.

In this way naturalism sustains absolutism insofar as it labels these breakdowns as moral failures.

Question 39

Who presents the long running British empiricist challenge to the claims of naturalism and the idea that morals are absolute facts?

Answer 39

David Hume

Question 40

What is Hume’s empiricist challenge to the claims of naturalism and the idea that morals are absolute facts?

Answer 40

Hume argued that moral claims are not derived from reason, but rather from sentiment. In ‘A Treaties of Human Nature’, he rejected the idea that moral good or evil can be distinguished using reason.

They are explained by the sentiment of the observer, not his or her reason. He goes on to suggest that morals excite passions and produce or prevent actions, but reason is impotent in matters of morality.

The rules of morality are not the result of our applying of reason. Hume disagreed with Aquinas in this respect. Hume challenges us that when we see something we think is wrong the wrongness comes from our sentiment, not from our observations

Question 41

What quote coms from Hume, from Treatise of Human Nature

Answer 41

“when you pronounce any action or character to be vicious, you mean nothing, but that from the constitution of your nature you have a feeling or sentiment of blame from the contemplation of it.”

Question 42

Hume observed that writers or morality often move from… (+example)

Answer 42

‘is’ statements (statements of fact) to ‘ought or ought not to’ statements

A person tells a lie and the moral philosophers say ‘you ought not to lie’

Question 43

Hume argues that going from ‘is’ statements (statements of fact) to ‘ought or ought not to’ statements is a move that creates…

Answer 43

an entirely unjustified new relationship between the words.

Question 44

What does C.R. Pigden say to support Hume’s Law? (quote)

Answer 44

“naturalists, in short, resort to all sorts of supposed facts - sociological psychological, scientific even metaphysical or supernatural”

Question 45

What quote supports Hume’s Law, said by who?

Answer 45

“naturalists, in short, resort to all sorts of supposed facts - sociological psychological, scientific even metaphysical or supernatural”

C.R. Pigden

Question 46

Who challenges Hume?

Answer 46

Philippa Foot

Question 47

The British naturalist philosopher Philippa Foot suggests that moral evil is a …

Answer 47

kind of natural defect

Question 48

What quote (OF HERS) supports Philippa Foot’s idea that moral evil is a kind of natural defect?

Answer 48

“The fact that human action or disposition is good of its kind is a fact about the given feature of a certain kind of living thing”

Question 49

Philla Foot - “The fact that human action or disposition is good of its kind is a fact about the given feature of a certain kind of living thing”

EXAMPLE?

Answer 49

when we call a person a ‘just man’ or an ‘honest woman’ we’re referring to something, to a person who recognises certain considerations such as promise keeping or helping your neighbour as things that are powerful, compelling reasons to act.

Question 50

The moral person is someone who… (according to Philippa Foot)

Answer 50

keeps promises, who defends those whose rights are being violated.

Question 51

A moral person has qualities which, for them, are the reason they act out certain actions, and this can be observed. We know if someone cannot be trusted to keep promises. Perhaps, therefore…

Answer 51

there are some absolute morals after all.

Question 52

Strength of Foot’s ideas

Answer 52

We can perceive the moral absolutes that empiricists argue we cannot measure.

Foot is arguing that there are virtues, characteristics or behaviours that are aimed at some good, and ideas she takes from Aristotle.

However, the key thing to understand is that she thinks these virtues can be recognised or observed by watching how a person acts in consideration of those virtues.

The person who acts in consideration of honesty does honest things, and the honest things can be identified through observation.

In this way we can perceive the moral absolutes that empiricists argue we cannot measure.

Question 53

Life offers patterns of excellence and defect, related to the function and purpose of living things, and these apply to morality as much as anything else:

GIVE EXAMPLE

Answer 53

1. there is a life cycle consisting of self maintenance and reproduction.
2. self maintenance and reproduction can be achieved differently in each species depending on how they feed themselves, how they develop and how they reproduce
3. from all of this, certain norms can be deduced, such as the swiftness of the deer or the night vision of the owl.
4. by applying these norms to individual members of the species, members can be judged to be effective or defective. An owl with poor night vision is a defective owl, for example.

Question 54

There is no difference between saying a living thing has good roots an saying human being has…

Answer 54

good dispositions of will.

Question 55

What is Philippa quote when she is evaluating the oak tree?

Answer 55

“oak trees need to stay upright because unlike creeping plants they have no possibility of life on the ground, and they’re tall, heavy trees. Therefore oaks need to have deep study roots: there is something wrong with them if they do not”

Question 56

Foot then applies her thinking to an example from… (NOT oak tree example)

Answer 56

Peter Kropotkin’s ‘Memoirs of a Revolutionist’, and the tale of Mikluko-Maklay, a geographer and anthropologist sent from Russia to study the peoples of the Malayan archipelago.

Question 57

What is the tale of Mikluko-Maklay, a geographer and anthropologist sent from Russia to study the peoples of the Malayan archipelago.

Answer 57

1. He had with him a native who had entered into his service only expressed condition of never being photographed.
2. The natives, as everyone knows, considered that something is taken out of them when their likenesses taken by photography.
3. One day when the native was fast asleep, Maklay, who was collecting anthropological materials, confessed that he was awfully tempted to photograph his native, the more so as he was a typical representative of his tribe and would never have known that he had been photographed.
4. But he remembered his agreement and refrained

Question 58

What does Mikluko-Maklay tale show?

Answer 58

shows the wrongness associated with breaking a promise. It could be considered that taking the photograph would do no harm because the servant was asleep.

However, trust and respect are things that matter. To take advantage of a person in this way would have been wrong. Trust matters in human communities. Human happiness has something to do with justice.

Humans have developed ways to live well together and have developed rules, morale rose, to ensure that everyone can live happily together. These rules are natural an absolute, and whether people follow them can be observed.