Naturalism

• Objective moral laws exist independently of humans. They are observed by us, using our senses and logic, but are not reliant on us for their existence. 
• Moral terms are understood by analysing the natural world. Ethical Naturalists believe that because moral laws are objective and independent of humans, they can be observed in the same way that scientific terms are (proof and evidence).
• Ethical statements are cognitivist and truth-apt (they can be verified or falsified). Those that are verified are thus objective truths and universal.

THEOLOGICAL NATURALISTS:

Theological naturalists maintain that goodness is linked to the will of God, and thus God's ill defines morality: Divine Command Theory.

St Thomas Aquinas was a theological naturalist.

HEDONIC NATURALISTS:

Implies that goodness is a fact of pleasure or happiness, like utilitarianism.

Murder is 'wrong' because it is not conductive to harmonious happiness, and we can verify this using our own experience.

'whatever is the object of any man's appetite or desire, that is it which he for his part calls good'- Hobbes

• 19th-century philosopher 
• 'Ethical Studies' 

He believed that a moral perspective was determined from self-realization and from observing one's position in society.

We need to observe our families and the wider community and adopt their values.

In order to be a good person we need to know our 'station', and it is only by fulfilling the duties of this station that we could be moral. 

Doing wrong would not be breaking rules in Bradley's eyes, but instead going against your role in society.