Meta – ethical theoriesLO: To compare and contrast the various meta-ethical theories

Key words

• Anagram – make as many (4 letter or more) words from ‘meta ethical theories’

• Important to define the key words: what’s the difference between meta- ethical theories and normative ethics?

• Meta ethics- the study of the meaning of ethical concepts

• Normative ethics – theories of ethics that give advice on how we ought to behave.

Task

• Match up the key words

• Cut up and play pairs!

• What is naturalism?

• Believes right and wrong can be known empirically and that these truths reveal absolute moral standards.

• Intuitionism?

• Agrees with naturalism in the sense that there is such a thing as right and wrong yet disagrees on how it is known – moral truths are self evident –‘we just know’.

• Emotivism?

• There are no moral facts. Our ethical feelings are merely showing approval or disapproval – indicating subjective feelings on the issues. It argues that ethical claims are factually meaningless.

• Moral truths can be discovered by observation of the world.

• What is right and wrong can be established by looking at the world around us.

• It is a moral realist theory – believing that moral facts / truths actually exist

• It is also cognitivist – statements about right and wrong are subject to being either true or false.

• Ethical terms are meaningful.

Versions of EN

• There are different versions of EN, but it worth noting again that the key feature they have in common is the idea that moral values can be defined and discovered by looking at some aspects of the world and can be known empirically.

1. Aquinas would hold onto theological naturalism. The world has a God-given order built into it. moral values can be worked out by understanding our God given purpose and observing natural order.

2. The British philosopher FH Bradley argued that it is possible to understand our moral duties by observing our position/ station in life. Eg nurse

3. Utilitarian thinkers (eg?) argue that we can discover right and wrong by discovering what actions lead to pleasure and pain, and we can infer that this action is wrong.

Objection to naturalism

• David Hume – ‘is-ought’ problem.

• when we consider an action such as murder we can descrive the facts empirically – using statements involving the word ‘is’ – but then we move towards moral claims involving ‘ought’ and ‘ought not’.

• Hume suggests that no matter how closely we examine the situation itself we will not be able to empirically see or hear the ‘wrongness’ of such an action.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjiSPsf_6j4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjiSPsf_6j4

• Moral truths cannot be discovered by observation of the world.

• Right and wrong are not able to be defined but are self-evident.

• We are able to know them by our intuition.

• Like naturalism, it is a moral realist theory, believing that moral facts/truths actually exist and it is a cognitive theory (believing that statements made about right and wrong are subject to being either true or false).

• Like naturalists, they believe ethical terms are meaningful – however they differ from naturalism regarding how moral values come to be known.

G E Moore’s intuitionism

• “If I am asked, ‘What is good?’ my answer is that good is good and that is the end of the matter. Or if I am asked ‘How is good defined?’, my answer is that it cannot be defined and that is all I have to say about it” “Principia Ethica”

• Moore identifies the naturalistic fallacy as the key error that naturalism makes. For any natural property eg pleasure, we can still ask the question, ‘is pleasure really good?’. The fact that it is possible to answer ‘no’ shows that pleasure (and other natural properties) are not the same as good.

• We do not recognise goodness through empirical facts – the ‘good’ is self evident to our intuition.

Task: read naturalistic fallacy sheet

• Moore uses the analogy of the colour yellow to explain how this intuition might work.

• If we are asked to describe the colour yellow or present an argument that an object was yellow we would find the task difficult.

• We only answer the question of ‘What is yellow’ by pointing to an object that is yellow –we are similarly able to recognise goodness.. It cannot be defined but it can be shown and known.

• Moore explains the difference between simple and complex ideas.

• Complex ideas – eg a horse – can be broken down into parts - ;legs, head etc.

• Simple ideas such as the colour yellow cannot be divided into parts.

• Moore states that goodness is a simple idea and simple ideas are grasped by intuition.

Strengths of intuitionism

• Takes Hume’s challenge seriously.

• There is widespread agreement on moral intuitions

• Defends the existence of moral facts

Weaknesses of intuitionism

• People can have different intuitions on a topic.

• It is not clear what this strange phenomenon of ‘intuition’ actually is.

• Idea od an extra ability that is not able to be analysed by the senses seems far-fetched.

• There are no moral truths, moral statements are based on feelings of approval or disapproval.

• It is an anti-realist theory, believing that there are no moral facts.

• It is also non-cognitivist – believes that statements made about right and wrong are not subject to truth or falsity.

• Ethical statements are meaningless.

The Vienna Circle and the verification principle• The background to emotivism is found in the work of logical

positivists and David Hume.

• The verification principle put forward by the logical positivists suggest that statements are only meaningful if

1. They are analytic statements (true by definition)

2. They are synthetic statements (verified by the senses).

• Hume had previously argued that moral judgements were feelings or sentiments rather than factual judgements.

• When we observe the facts of a situation we are not able to see the rightness or wrongness.

Ayer’s emotivism

• AJ Ayer agreed with the logical positivists on the verification principle.

• His weak version of it shows that we should only view statements as meaningful if we are able to say how we can verify them.

• As moral statements are neither logical nor provable by the senses, this means that they are factually meaningless.

• Ayer argues that it is important to look at what ethical statements rae for rather than look for ‘meaning’.

• This means we need to look at how speakers use the words ‘right’ ’.

• Ethical statements show emotional states or feelings about issues.

• The words ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ do not add anything, they merely convey a disapproving tone.

• https://create.kahoot.it/details/meta-ethics/f9be4382-8ebd-401e-89fb-c985da1b4daa

https://create.kahoot.it/details/meta-ethics/f9be4382-8ebd-401e-89fb-c985da1b4daa