Ethical Naturalism Exam Questions

• cognitive moral realism
• reductionist: things in one domain = things in another
• meanings of ethical sentences can be expressed as natural properties without using ethical terms i.e good, right etc

• good = happiness; act is right or wrong depending on whether it brings happiness or not; happiness is natural/psychological property therefore rightness/goodness is natural property

1) how can we prove it?

• no proof that happiness (or any other natural property) is goodness

2) empirical reasoning

• science can show if someone is happy but not that that is good

3) deduction

• conceptual analysis of "happiness" doesn't establish it's good

P1 - if someone desires something, it is desirable
P2 - people desire happiness + happiness is desirable
C - we all desire happiness + happiness of all is goal of morality

CRITICISM

Moore:
P1 - Mill argues happiness is desired + infers that happiness is good
P2 - this only works if what is desired is good

1) naturalistic fallacy
2) is what is desired always desirable?
3) Hume: is-ought gap
4) Sidgwick: fallacy of composition (just bc parts of something share a common feature ≠ whole has common feature - indiv. desires don't make overarching desire - indiv. happiness is own good but general happiness isn't the good)
5) erodes autonomy of ethics to exist in ordinary world
6) how can we say that moral properties are "just" identical to natural ones? Which normative ethical theory is good in its definition of good?
7) no proof through empirical data