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R.S. Ethics > Topic 7 - Metaethics > Flashcards

Topic 7 - Metaethics Flashcards

1
Q

What is meta-ethics?

A

Study of the meaning and justification of moral ideas

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2
Q

What is normative ethics?

A

Theories of ethics that give guidance on how we should behave and/or the character traits we should develop.

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3
Q

What is naturalism?

A

The belief that values can be defined in terms of some natural property in the world

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4
Q

What is intuitionism?

A

The belief that basic moral truths are indefinable but self-evident

developed by W.D Ross and H.A Pritchard

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5
Q

What is emotivism?

A

The belief that ethical terms evince approval or disapproval

aj ayer

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6
Q

What is the is/ought problem and give example

A

David Hume

Problem of finding any logical justification of ethical judgements from the facts of the world.

The is/ought problem is based on the principle that any factual proposition is reducible to involving the verb ‘to be’

(i) all men are mortal (major premise)
(ii) socrates is a man (minor premise)
(iii) therefore socrates is mortal (conclusion)

it is illegitamate to put into the conclusion anything not stated in the premise e.g. socrates likes the olympic games could not be discovered from the premise

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7
Q

how does plato’s form of the good respond to hume is/ought

A

There is something factual about goodness

Plato attempts to fix the meaning of good by taking it as a singular spiritual being

the form of the good argued to have even greater reality than the objects of our perception

such a form for plato exists as it is necessary to make sense both of our ability to describe and our perceptions of reality

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8
Q

what is hedonism?

A

belief that pleasure is the good and nothing is the good. ‘pleasure’ and ‘good’ are interchangeable terms

bentham

epicurus

form of naturalism

aristotle says pleasure accompanies good activities like ‘the bloom on the cheek of youth’

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9
Q

what is absolutism?

A

view that there are some things which are always obligatory. Examples include utilitariaism and kantian ethics

some claim that if naturalism is adopted as an ethical theory we commit to absolutism because if the nature of good is fixed then it might seem we should always pursue that fixed good

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10
Q

what is the naturalist fallacy?

A

Offered by british philosopher ge moore, defence of non-naturalism (criticism of naturalism)

is the error of assuming that the good is identical with some natural quality, such as pleasure. Moore’s argument makes use of the open question argument

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11
Q

what is the open question argument?

A
  • X is pleasant but is it good?
  • following version of sentence, bear-baiting is pleasant but is it good?
  • But, hedonists claim that pleasure is the good (and nothing else) meaning ‘pleasure’ and ‘good’ are synonomous
  • so, the sentence can be re-written as “bear baiting is good, but is it good?
  • this makes no sense so naturalism is wrong as good cannot be a natural quality
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12
Q

what is the underlying idea of intuitionism?

A

we know the good - it is a simple perception of non-natural but simple property rather ‘like yellow’ (moore)

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13
Q

what is moores yellow idea?

A

moore was influenced by german Francz Brentano who developed the idea of internationality (that our minds are never neutral observers of the world

we see at once that something is yellow, we know it with great certainty , yet there is no one thing that is yellow. But when we see yellow it is undeniable such as how we know good with intuitionism

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14
Q

what is intuitionists problem with the term intuition?

A

according to moore this view is not subjective, things are not right or wrong as i say so its how its perceived by the mind

moore said “when i call such propositions intuitions i mean merely to assert they are incapable of proof”

what moore means here is the mind is able to reason whether a proposition is true but cannot prove so.

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15
Q

what was gj warlocks criticism of intuitionism?

A

“simply a sense of bewilderment got up to like like a theory”

e.g. if we simply know something is good how can we discuss our views, if you think snowdon is taller than everest it can be resolved by measurement but as both moore and bertrand russell admit is not resolvable in that way

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16
Q

how would empiricism criticise intutitionism

A

empiricists such as hume would say that all knowledge is obtained by sense experience but moore is claiming we are able to recognise non-natural qualities, how could we do this if our senses are not attuned to non-natural good properties

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17
Q

how does russell defend against empiricism?

A

russell argues this perception is a priori (knowledge not dependent on experience)

18
Q

how does ayer describe emotivism?

A

“if i say stealing money is wrong i produce a sentence with no factual meaning”

such statements express a feeling and so we know they’re wrong (feeling not felt in all cases)

although, ayer denied this and says he may say something is right even though i do not feel it and argues that as ethical judgements have no factual meaning there can be arguments between say what is the right ethical conclusion

19
Q

what is the killing boo theory?

A

links to ayer saying statements have no factual meaning so no debate can be had

winston barnes

as words such as right or wrong are not meaningful they are meaningless e.g. if someone shouts boo because he doesn’t like something he is offering nothing to discuss

20
Q

how did peter vardy criticise emotivism?

A

“it is hot air and nothing else”

21
Q

how does james rachels criticise emotivism?

A

argues that emotivism wrongly compares stubbing one’s toe to making moral statements, and called moral feelings convictions

22
Q

how does mel thompson criticise emotivism?

A

“You cannot reduce morality to a set of cheers and boos.”

23
Q

ESSAY PLAN - METAETHICS

“Do ethical terms such as good, bad, right and wrong have an objective factual basis that makes them true or false in describing something?”

POINT 1

naturalism, empirical discovery (aquinas)

A
  • Ethical Naturalism is a meta-ethical doctrine, which maintains moral truths can be empirically discovered via observation of the world. It is a moral realist theory (insofar as it believes moral facts exist) and is thus cognitive (as moral statements can be judged true or false).
  • Aquinas’ Natural Law is a form of theological naturalism – one can understand the moral standard (set by God’s Eternal Law) through observation of the natural world/ order (Natural Law)
24
Q

ESSAY PLAN - METAETHICS

“Do ethical terms such as good, bad, right and wrong have an objective factual basis that makes them true or false in describing something?”

POINT 1 - counter argument

is ought problem (hume)

A

• Hume argued one cannot go from a descriptive premise of what “is”, to a prescriptive conclusion, “ought” statement. No matter how closely you empirically examine a situation, the rightness or wrongness will no be objectively clear.

25
Q

ESSAY PLAN - METAETHICS

“Do ethical terms such as good, bad, right and wrong have an objective factual basis that makes them true or false in describing something?”

POINT 1 - counter response

human experience seems to confirm truth (bentham + mill)

A

• Utilitarians such as Bentham and Mill believed morality could be deduced from observing what brought about most pleasure and least pain

26
Q

ESSAY PLAN - METAETHICS

“Do ethical terms such as good, bad, right and wrong have an objective factual basis that makes them true or false in describing something?”

POINT 1 - conclusive response

naturalistic fallacy (moore + open question argument)

A
  • G.E. Moore argues moral properties may be correlated with natural properties, but moral properties are not identical to natural properties. For example: a moral act such as giving to charity might make me happy, but the morality of the act merely gives way to the happiness, and is not the happiness in itself. Or more explicitly, inflicting pain for a sadist is pleasurable, but is it good?
  • OPEN QUESTION ARGUMENT – if goodness and pleasure were the same thing, it would not make sense to ask “is pleasure good?” because it would be like asking “is pleasure pleasure?” – yet as the former question does make sense, clearly good is distinct from pleasure (or any other natural property) moral properties cannot be reduced to anything simpler, such as pain or pleasure, because moral properties are basic.
27
Q

ESSAY PLAN - METAETHICS

“Do ethical terms such as good, bad, right and wrong have an objective factual basis that makes them true or false in describing something?”

POINT 2

intuitionism, moral terms are self-evident (moore + bertrand russell)

A
  • Whilst maintaining morality is cognitive, intuitionism asserts that moral facts are not to be discovered, but rather are self-evident and known intuitively.
  • “If I am asked ‘How is good to be defined?’ my answer is that it cannot be defined, and that is all I have to say about it” (G.E. Moore ‘Principia Ethica’) Moore likened good to the colour yellow – we only demonstrate our knowledge by pointing to the colour yellow; it can be shown and known, yet not defined seems true that people have an intuitive sense of morality
  • Bertrand Russell, in ‘The Problems of Philosophy’ argues perception of good is a priori, “the truth of such knowledge can neither be proved no disproved by experience”
28
Q

ESSAY PLAN - METAETHICS

“Do ethical terms such as good, bad, right and wrong have an objective factual basis that makes them true or false in describing something?”

POINT 2 - counter argument

conflicting intuitive understandings (nietzsche)

A
  • Yet how can morality be cognitive and intuitive, if many have different intuitive understandings of good and bad
  • Nietzsche raised the issue of ethical colour blindness to highlight how different intuitions may point to different ideas of right and wrong; what one may see as yellow, another may see as green
  • If knowledge of good and bad is a priori, and unable to be proved by outside criterion, then there is no way to prove whose interpretation of moral dilemmas is correct! If a murder thought murder was right, and killed someone who thought it was wrong, there would be no way to discern who had knowledge of moral truth.
29
Q

ESSAY PLAN - METAETHICS

“Do ethical terms such as good, bad, right and wrong have an objective factual basis that makes them true or false in describing something?”

POINT 2 - counter response

some have better intuition than others (pritchard)

A

• H.A. Pritchard – people disagree on what it good because their minds are not ordered correctly. Conflicting ideas does not undermine the objectivity of goodness, rather highlights some have fuller understanding than others.

30
Q

ESSAY PLAN - METAETHICS

“Do ethical terms such as good, bad, right and wrong have an objective factual basis that makes them true or false in describing something?”

POINT 2- conclusive response

issue of intuition (moore + warnock)

A

• The phenomenon of intuition does not seem to be sufficiently explained and the idea of knowledge detached from experience or the senses may be puzzling to some, much like Plato’s concept of innate knowledge of the forms G.J. Warnock used to argue intuitionism was simply a sense of bewilderment got up to look like a theory.

31
Q

ESSAY PLAN - METAETHICS

“Do ethical terms such as good, bad, right and wrong have an objective factual basis that makes them true or false in describing something?”

POINT 3

emotivisim, moral statements are non-cognitive evinces of preference (Ayer)

A
  • A.J. Ayer, in ‘Language, Truth and Logic’ explained that putative propositions can only be literally meaningful once they have been analytically or empirically verified (or falsified): Ayer developed the principle of weak verification, which claimed that statements could be verified if one is able to state what evidence would make the sentence probable
  • He claimed moral statements were neither analytic or provable by the senses, and were therefore factually meaningless non-cognitive
32
Q

ESSAY PLAN - METAETHICS

“Do ethical terms such as good, bad, right and wrong have an objective factual basis that makes them true or false in describing something?”

POINT 3 - conclusive response

does not render ethics meaningless - moral proof different from scientific proof (wojtyla)

A
  • Although Ayer’s emotivism sets the bar too high by arguing that because I cannot prove something it becomes meaningless, one can argue that whilst moral statements clearly express preference they can be validated through reasoning and experience (as opposed to scientific or factual proof).
  • For example, although I cannot prove paedophilia is wrong, I can give reasons for why it is wrong e.g. damaging psychological effects, abuse, violation of human rights
  • Karol Wojtyla, in ‘The Acting Person’, highlights that ethical demands and stances grow out of human encounter – it is through encountering good, bad, needs, desires that we uncover a sense or morality and the need to be moral ethical statements do not require logical or scientific justification, but instead experience of being human and living
33
Q

ESSAY PLAN - MEANING OF GOOD AS DEFINING QUESTION

“Is what is meant by the meaning of the term good the defining question in the study of ethics?”

POINT 1

theoretical value, intuitionism vs emotivism, morality must be cognitive (moore + russell)

A
  • Whilst maintaining morality is cognitive, intuitionism asserts that moral facts are not to be discovered, but rather are self-evident and known intuitively.
  • “If I am asked ‘How is good to be defined?’ my answer is that it cannot be defined, and that is all I have to say about it” (G.E. Moore ‘Principia Ethica’) Moore likened good to the colour yellow – we only demonstrate our knowledge by pointing to the colour yellow; it can be shown and known, yet not defined seems true that people have an intuitive sense of morality
  • Bertrand Russell, in ‘The Problems of Philosophy’ argues perception of good is a priori, “the truth of such knowledge can neither be proved no disproved by experience”
34
Q

ESSAY PLAN - MEANING OF GOOD AS DEFINING QUESTION

“Is what is meant by the meaning of the term good the defining question in the study of ethics?”

POINT 1 - counter argument

issue of intuition - merely expression of preference (nietzsche)

A
  • Yet how can morality be cognitive and intuitive, if many have different intuitive understandings of good and bad
  • Nietzsche raised the issue of ethical colour blindness to highlight how different intuitions may point to different ideas of right and wrong; what one may see as yellow, another may see as green SUGGESTS GOOD HAS NO ONE MEANING, POINTS TO THE EMOTIVIST UNDERSTANDING THAT GOOD IS AN EXPRESSION OF PREFERENCE, THUS ARGUABLY FACTUALLY MEANINGLESS
35
Q

ESSAY PLAN - MEANING OF GOOD AS DEFINING QUESTION

“Is what is meant by the meaning of the term good the defining question in the study of ethics?”

POINT 1 - counter response

prevents meaningful discussion, people use ‘good’ as though they know it’s maning

A
  • If no terms can be proved or disproved, as they are merely a matter of expression, there could be no meaningful debate about ethics. In exactly the same way that atheism, theism and agnosticism were meaningless to logical positivists, the meta-ethical debate or relativity or absoluteness is non-sensical.
  • Furthermore, this contradicts our own understanding of use of ethical terminology. Ethical terms or beliefs are clearly not beyond reason, as we have reasons for our beliefs, based on experience.
36
Q

ESSAY PLAN - MEANING OF GOOD AS DEFINING QUESTION

“Is what is meant by the meaning of the term good the defining question in the study of ethics?”

POINT 1 - conclusive response

it’s meaning is not derived from intuition, but experience (gj warnock)

A

• The phenomenon of intuition does not seem to be sufficiently explained and the idea of knowledge detached from experience or the senses may be puzzling to some, much like Plato’s concept of innate knowledge of the forms G.J. Warnock used to argue intuitionism was simply a sense of bewilderment got up to look like a theory MEANING CANNOT COME FROM INTUITION

37
Q

ESSAY PLAN - MEANING OF GOOD AS DEFINING QUESTION

“Is what is meant by the meaning of the term good the defining question in the study of ethics?”

POINT 2

practical value, naturalism vs emotivism, morality derived from natural properties (Aquinas)

A

• Ethical Naturalism is a meta-ethical doctrine, which maintains moral truths can be empirically discovered via observation of the world. It is a moral realist theory (insofar as it believes moral facts exist) and is thus cognitive (as moral statements can be judged true or false).
o Aquinas’ Natural Law is a form of theological naturalism – one can understand the moral standard (set by God’s Eternal Law) through observation of the natural world/ order (Natural Law) WITHOUT A MORAL STANDARD SOCIETY WOULD COLLAPSE AS THERE COULD BE NO JUSTIFIED LAWS

38
Q

ESSAY PLAN - MEANING OF GOOD AS DEFINING QUESTION

“Is what is meant by the meaning of the term good the defining question in the study of ethics?”

POINT 2 - counter argument

no underlying truths, just expressing preference (is ought problem, hume)

A
  • Is Ought Problem – Hume contends absolute wrongness or rightness cannot be deduced from experience or observation there are no metaphysical truths or supernatural properties, there is no objective meaning
  • It seems evident that when people describe something as good, bad, right or wrong, they are expressing an attitude towards something. By viewing moral statements in this way, there is not unexplainable metaphysical phenomena such as “intuition” or a “divine law”
39
Q

ESSAY PLAN - MEANING OF GOOD AS DEFINING QUESTION

“Is what is meant by the meaning of the term good the defining question in the study of ethics?”

POINT 2 - conclusive response

emotivism trivialises ethics, defies the law (thompson + macintyre)

A

• Mel Thompson has argued “you cannot reduce morality to a set of cheers and boos”; if morality is not more than personal opinion, then laws such as “do no murder” seem to be no more important than someone claiming “I don’t like red sweets”. MacIntrye argues emotivism places child carers and paedophiles as equals CLEARLY THE QUESITON OF WHAT “GOOD” MEANS IS INTEGRAL FOR FUNCTIONING SOCIETIES

40
Q

ESSAY PLAN - MEANING OF GOOD AS DEFINING QUESTION

“Is what is meant by the meaning of the term good the defining question in the study of ethics?”

POINT 3

non-cognitive , although still important , moral statements are non-cognitive evinces of preference (aj ayer)

A
  • A.J. Ayer, in ‘Language, Truth and Logic’ explained that putative propositions can only be literally meaningful once they have been analytically or empirically verified (or falsified): Ayer developed the principle of weak verification, which claimed that statements could be verified if one is able to state what evidence would make the sentence probable
  • He claimed moral statements were neither analytic or provable by the senses, and were therefore factually meaningless non-cognitive
41
Q

ESSAY PLAN - MEANING OF GOOD AS DEFINING QUESTION

“Is what is meant by the meaning of the term good the defining question in the study of ethics?”

POINT 3 - conclusive response

does not render ethics meaningless - moral proof is different from scientific proof (wojtyla)

A
  • Although Ayer’s emotivism sets the bar too high by arguing that because I cannot prove something it becomes meaningless, one can argue that whilst moral statements clearly express preference they can be validated through reasoning and experience (as opposed to scientific or factual proof).
  • For example, although I cannot prove paedophilia is wrong, I can give reasons for why it is wrong e.g. damaging psychological effects, abuse, violation of human rights
  • Karol Wojtyla, in ‘The Acting Person’, highlights that ethical demands and stances grow out of human encounter – it is through encountering good, bad, needs, desires that we uncover a sense or morality and the need to be moral ethical statements do not require logical or scientific justification, but instead experience of being human and living
  • THE QUESTION IS IMPORTANT BUT DOES NOT HAVE ONE SIMPLE ANSWER

R.S. Ethics (10 decks)

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