Meta Ethics

Question 1

What is meta ethics?

Answer 1

The analysis of religious language
Concerned what it means to be moral, rather than what actions are moral

Question 2

What are normative ethics?

Answer 2

Looking at what makes an act ‘good’ or ‘moral’

Question 3

What did Hume believe about meta ethics?

Answer 3

• The natural world is the source of all truth
• These truths must be verified through observations and experience

Question 4

What did Hume’s ideas lead to?

Answer 4

Logical postivism

Question 5

What approach would logical positivism take to meta ethics?

Answer 5

Ethical statements cannot be verified analytically or synthetically so are meaningless.

Question 6

What is moral realism?

Answer 6

The idea that moral facts are objective and exist within the world
Some actions intrinsically have the property of being good, others bad.

Question 7

What is a cognitive approach to meta ethics?

Answer 7

• We can have moral knowledge and ethical statements are facts that can be true or false.
• Moral values are derived from sense experience

Question 8

What is the non cognitive approach to meta ethics?

Answer 8

• When someone makes a moral statement they are not describing the world but rather expressing their feelings or telling people what to do
• Moral statements are subjective

Question 9

What is ethical naturalism?

Answer 9

The idea that ethical statements can be verified or falsified through empirical means, and therefore hold meaning.

Question 10

How did G.E Moore critique ethical naturalism?

Answer 10

• Claimed it commits a naturalistic fallacy by claiming ethical statements can be verified and falsified.
• We cannot infer from how the world is how the world should be so morality cannot be gained through observations

Question 11

What was G.E Moore’s colour analogy?

Answer 11

In the same way that the colour yellow cannot be broken down, (yellow is just yellow), good is just good and cannot be broken down further

Question 12

What approach to meta ethics did G.E Moore support?

Answer 12

Intuitionism

Question 13

What is intuitionism?

Answer 13

• The idea that people intuitively know what is right and wrong in any situation
• We cannot define good, but have an intuitive understanding of it.
• Ethical statements cannot be proved

Question 14

What approach does H.A Prichard take on meta ethics?

Answer 14

• Discusses the moral claim ‘ought’ by saying no definition can be given to it, but we can give it properties.
• Everyone recognised when we ought to do an action. Moral obligations are obvious

Question 15

What did Bentham argue on meta ethics?

Answer 15

• It is a scientific fact that humans like pleasure and dislike pain
• Good actions can therefore be defined as those which bring about the most pleasure
• Objectivist

Question 16

What type of meta ethics can Aristotle’s telos support?

Answer 16

• Objectivism
• Actions which bring us closer to our telos are objectively good

Question 17

What did F.H Bradley argue about meta ethics?

Answer 17

• Good can be proven psychologically
• Actions which make society better are objectively good

Question 18

How did Hume critique ethical naturalism?

Answer 18

It commits a naturalistic fallacy by illogically jumping from what is to what ought to be.
Moral truths cannot be devised from factual and empirical truths

Question 19

What is G.E Moore’s yellow analogy?

Answer 19

In the same way the colour yellow is simply a characteristic and cannot be broken down further, goodness is a characteristic of acts and cannot broken down further and defined.
Critiques ethical naturalism and supports intuitionism

Question 20

How did W.D Ross develop intuitionism further?

Answer 20

When we intuit that an action is right, it is our duty to do it.
These are called prima facie duties and should be deontologically done

Question 21

How did Mackie critique intuitonism?

Answer 21

Intuitionism states what is right, but does not guide us on what we should actually do practically

Question 22

What did A.J Ayer believe on moral statements?

Answer 22

They are neither analytic or synthetic so do not hold cognitive meaning.
However, they still hold non cognitive, subjective meaning due to the emotions they express.

Question 23

What approach to meta ethics does Ayer support?

Answer 23

Emotivism

Question 24

What is emotivism?

Answer 24

The idea that ethical statements express emotions rather than objective truths

Question 25

What did James Rachels suggest about emotivism

Answer 25

Moral judgments do appeal to reason. There are good, reasonable statements for some expressions of emotions, such as ‘animals testing is cruel’.

Question 26

How did C.L Stevenson develop emotivism?

Answer 26

- Suggested words have descriptive and dynamic meanings. For example, saying ‘I have lots of work to do’ contains a descriptive element (that I have work to do), and a dynamic element of wanting others to help with my work. - Moral statements such as ‘abortion is wrong’ may have no factual meaning, but there is an expectation of others to act on it. - Emotivist ethical statements are therefore meaningful as they lead to action being taken.

Question 27

What is prescriptivism?

Answer 27

The idea that moral statements are prescribing what other people think.

Question 28

Who developed and supported prescriptivism, and how?

Answer 28

R.M Hare. When we say something is wrong, we are implying everyone should think the same.