Ethics

4. Ethical Language: Meta-ethics The study of meta-ethical theories and how ethical language in the modern era has changed over time…

Meta-ethics is the branch of ethics which seeks to understand the nature of moral language and assertions (from the Greek prefix…

The exam questions are analysed in greater detail in my book How to get an A Grade and also samples fully…

‘Good is meaningful’. Discuss (40) OCR June 2018 Q2 Here is an example of an essay done under timed conditions on…

Meta-ethics Meta-ethics means “beyond ethics”, in other words, rather than asking whether an action is good or bad (normative ethics), meta-ethics…

Meta-ethics Introduction Meta-ethics examines the language behind ethical theories and moral beliefs. Instead of asking “is stealing wrong?”, the meta-ethical philosopher…

Here is a wide-ranging introductory powerpoint on meta-ethics.   For more detailed powerpoints go to the three powerpoints on htis site,…

Meta ethics emotivism-and_descriptivism (3) 1. Meta-ethics 2. • What do we mean when we say “stealing is wrong”? • Is morality…

Critically assess the view that the word ‘good’ has no real meaning. OCR G582 June 2013 Q3 My comments prefaced by…

“The presence of an ethical symbol in a proposition adds nothing to its factual content. Thus if I say to someone,…

Moore is a non-naturalist cognitivist (it’s not just the non-cognitivists like Ayer and Hare who are non-naturalists as Jill Oliphant’s textbook…

For a very clear, brief discussion of Moore’s intuitionism, follow the link below. http://www.philosophy.uncc.edu/mleldrid/SzCMT/intuit.html Further reading on GE Moore is here

R.M. Hare (1919-2002) developed a theory of moral language called Prescriptivism (for a detailed discussion and consideration of the criticisms made…

source Introduction Ethical Naturalism (or Naturalistic Ethics) is the meta-ethical doctrine that there are objective moral properties of which we have empirical knowledge, but that…

R. M. Hare, The Language of Morals (1952) 4. DECISIONS OF PRINCIPLE 4. 1. There are two factors which may be involved…

source Chapter II: Naturalistic Ethics. § 24. It results from the conclusions of Chapter I, that all ethical questions fall under one…

4. Is objectivity a real issue? source It has, however, been doubted whether there is a real issue here. I must…

source CHAPTER 6 CRITIQUE OF ETHICS AND THEOLOGY There is still one objection to be met before we can claim to…

source  Moore on Goodness Moore’s Non-Naturalism Moore’s view is that moral judgments are true or false (and some are true), and…

24.231 Ethics – Handout 3 Ayer’s Emotivism Emotivism: Moral judgments are not truth-apt, but rather, are expressions of sentiments of approval…

source  Brink, “The Form and Content of Moral Judgments” Brink argues that non-cognitivist theories (he considers emotivism and prescriptivism), which claim…

source Harman, “Ethics and Observation” Harman’s Thesis: Moral theories, unlike scientific theories, do not seem to be confirmable through observation. What is…

source Sturgeon, “Moral Explanations” Harman: Many of our beliefs are justified by their providing or helping to provide reasonable explanations of…

James Gray is a very clear writer, I think, who has generously left some short ebooks online. He is a naturalist…

source Naturalism in Ethics Ethics is a context in which there are important non-scientistic versions of naturalism. For example, there are…

Torbjorn Tanssjo’s teaxtbook is one of the five I recommend in my bibliography. Tanssjo is a moral realist – and here’s…

In this interactive article Dr Stephen Loxton discusses Philippa Foot’s criticisms of Hare’s prescriptivism.  Foot was an ethical naturalist who in…

For an excellent article with many useful quotes and criticisms of Hare’s prescriptivism go to: http://www.indiana.edu/~socrates/papers/Hare%20on%20Universalizability.pdf

Published in G. E. Moore, Philosophical Studies, 1922. THE NATURE OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY G. E. Moore Note: Linkable paragraph numbers have…

Peter Geach argues that GE Moore confuses predicative adjectives “a brown horse” with attributive adjectives eg “a good philosopher” – where…

A short seven minute film explaining meta-ethics by Peter Baron

A clear explanation of naturalistic and non-naturalistic meta-ethics with reference to the naturalistic fallacy, emotivism and intuitionism