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R.S. Ethics > Topic 7.5 Emotivism, Intuitionism and Naturalism > Flashcards

Topic 7.5 Emotivism, Intuitionism and Naturalism Flashcards

1
Q

ESSAY PLAN - EMOTIVISM

“Moral statements are no more than expressions of emotions. Discuss.”

POINT 1

emotion (non-cognitive) vs natural properties (cognitive) (
(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
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2
Q

ESSAY PLAN - EMOTIVISM

“Moral statements are no more than expressions of emotions. Discuss.”

POINT 1 - counter argument

empirical discovery of natural properties (aquinas + naturalism)

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) WITHOUT A MORAL STANDARD SOCIETY WOULD COLLAPSE AS THERE COULD BE NO JUSTIFIED LAWS
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3
Q

ESSAY PLAN - EMOTIVISM

“Moral statements are no more than expressions of emotions. Discuss.”

POINT 1 - counter response

is ought problem suggest no underlying truths (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
  • 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”
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4
Q

ESSAY PLAN - EMOTIVISM

“Moral statements are no more than expressions of emotions. Discuss.”

POINT 1 - conclusive response

human experience confirms truth… scientific proof is different to moral proof (utilitarianism)

A
  • Utilitarians such as Bentham and Mill believed morality could be deduced from observing what brought about most pleasure and least pain
  • Emotivism sets the bar too high by arguing that because I cannot prove something it becomes meaningless. 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
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5
Q

ESSAY PLAN - EMOTIVISM

“Moral statements are no more than expressions of emotions. Discuss.”

POINT 2

emotion vs intuitive knowledge, moral statements must be cognitive (moore)

A

ESSAY PLAN - EMOTIVISM

“Moral statements are no more than expressions of emotions. Discuss.”

POINT 1

emotion (non-cognitive) vs natural properties (cognitive) (
(aj ayer)

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6
Q

ESSAY PLAN - EMOTIVISM

“Moral statements are no more than expressions of emotions. Discuss.”

POINT 2 - 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
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7
Q

ESSAY PLAN - EMOTIVISM

“Moral statements are no more than expressions of emotions. Discuss.”

POINT 2 - conclusive response

prevents meaningful discussion

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.
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8
Q

ESSAY PLAN - EMOTIVISM

“Moral statements are no more than expressions of emotions. Discuss.”

POINT 3

emotion although still important, ethics born out of human encounter (wojtyla)

A

• 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

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9
Q

ESSAY PLAN - EMOTIVISM

“Moral statements are no more than expressions of emotions. Discuss.”

POINT 3 - counter argument

trivialises ethics (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

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10
Q

ESSAY PLAN - EMOTIVISM

“Moral statements are no more than expressions of emotions. Discuss.”

POINT 3 - conclusive response

emotion does not mean its meaningless (stephen jay gould)

A
  • Ethical statements are merely subjective expressions of feelings and unlike analytic or synthetic statements; they lack objective meaning. Nonetheless, to claim ethical statements are non-cognitive is not to claim they lack significant meaning to cultures or social groups – Stephen Jay Gould, Non-overlapping magisteria
  • Whilst the premise of emotivism seems sound, the conclusion is flawed (that ethical discussion is non-sensical), as ethical statements are proved through human experience, not science or logic.
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11
Q

ESSAY PLAN - INTUITIONISM

“to what extent is it possible to argue that we just know what the good is?”

POINT 1

people intuitively know, moral truths are self evident (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”
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12
Q

ESSAY PLAN - INTUITIONISM

“to what extent is it possible to argue that we just know what the good is?”

POINT 1 - 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.
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13
Q

ESSAY PLAN - INTUITIONISM

“to what extent is it possible to argue that we just know what the good is?”

POINT 1 - 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.

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14
Q

ESSAY PLAN - INTUITIONISM

“to what extent is it possible to argue that we just know what the good is?”

POINT 1 - conclusive response

issue of intuition (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.

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15
Q

ESSAY PLAN - INTUITIONISM

“to what extent is it possible to argue that we just know what the good is?”

POINT 2

intuitionism hides the fact knowledge comes through experience, empirical discovery not intuitive knowledge (aquinas + ethical naturalism)

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) not intuitive, ethics born out of observation of the world, explained through natural properties
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16
Q

ESSAY PLAN - INTUITIONISM

“to what extent is it possible to argue that we just know what the good is?”

POINT 2 - 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.

17
Q

ESSAY PLAN - INTUITIONISM

“to what extent is it possible to argue that we just know what the good is?”

POINT 2 - 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 not intuitive but instead experienced

18
Q

ESSAY PLAN - INTUITIONISM

“to what extent is it possible to argue that we just know what the good is?”

POINT 2 - conclusive response

naturalistic fallacy

ge moore

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, thus perhaps Moore’s analogy of the colour yellow is right!
19
Q

ESSAY PLAN - INTUITIONISM

“to what extent is it possible to argue that we just know what the good is?”

POINT 3

morality is evincing preference, 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
20
Q

ESSAY PLAN - INTUITIONISM

“to what extent is it possible to argue that we just know what the good is?”

POINT 3 - counter argument

trivialises ethics (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 people just know what the truth of good is!

21
Q

ESSAY PLAN - INTUITIONISM

“to what extent is it possible to argue that we just know what the good is?”

POINT 3 - conclusive response

does not render ethics meaningless (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/ intuition, but instead experience of being human and living
22
Q

ESSAY PLAN - NATURALISM

“the good is not a natural quality”

POINT 1

naturalism, empiricial discovery (ethical naturalism + 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)
23
Q

ESSAY PLAN - NATURALISM

“the good is not a natural quality”

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.

24
Q

ESSAY PLAN - NATURALISM

“the good is not a natural quality”

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

25
Q

ESSAY PLAN - NATURALISM

“the good is not a natural quality”

POINT 1 - conclusive response

open question argument

A

• 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.

26
Q

ESSAY PLAN - NATURALISM

“the good is not a natural quality”

POINT 2

intuitionism vs naturalism, naturalistic fallacy (moore)

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?

27
Q

ESSAY PLAN - NATURALISM

“the good is not a natural quality”

POINT 2 - counter argument

moral truths are self evident (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”
28
Q

ESSAY PLAN - NATURALISM

“the good is not a natural quality”

POINT 2 - conclusive response

issue of intuition, (pritchard + warnock)

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.
  • 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.
29
Q

ESSAY PLAN - NATURALISM

“the good is not a natural quality”

POINT 3

emotivism vs naturalism, good is an evince of preference, not a natural property (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
30
Q

ESSAY PLAN - NATURALISM

“the good is not a natural quality”

POINT 3 - counter argument

preference = natural property i.e. pleasure

A

• One may argue that an evince of preference would correlate with pleasure – Bentham’s primitive pleasure principle suggests we are ruled by pain and pleasure; what we find pleasurable is what we prefer! Thus the good is a natural property.

31
Q

ESSAY PLAN - NATURALISM

“the good is not a natural quality”

POINT 3 - conclusive réponse

ethics born out o human encounter (wojtyla)

A
  • Pleasure is not always equated with goodness – the meaning of moral statements seems more complex than simply correlating with natural properties
  • 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

R.S. Ethics (10 decks)

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