Meta-ethics key words and people

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Normativism
Rules used to make ethical decisions, e.g utilitarianism, natural law
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Naturalistic fallacy
Good cannot be defined.
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Ethical cognitivism
Moral statements are objectively true or false.
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Ethical non-cognitivism
Moral statements can't be proved to be true or false
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Emotivism
Moral statements are expressions of feelings
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Give one strength of emotivism
Everyone's opinions are equally valid, doesn't allow cultural relativism
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Give one criticism of emotivism
Ethical statements = meaningless. CL = why should one person's views matter more? Allows people free reign. Rachels - moral judgements arbitrary.
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A.J Ayer
Ethical terms "arouse feeling, stimulate action". Analytic + synthetic statements meaningful, ehtical ones not.
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C.L Stevenson
Ethical statements = attitudes based on world beliefs, trying to infl. othes
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Intuitionism
We know moral truths intuitively, allowing us to make ethical decisions
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Give one strength of intuitionism
Appeals to human nature, simple, allows instant answers to issues
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Give one criticism of intutionism.
EMOTIONS give us intuition; different people = different intuitions.
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H.A Pritchard
Intuition + reason = two types of thinking, former looks, latter decides. Intuiton underdeveloped in some. Can't define "ought" obligations
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W.D Ross
Certain "prima facie" duties always right - FRGJBM. Must judge what's right, one duty can be rejected for another.
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Give one criticism of W.D Ross
How do we know which duty to pick when one conflicts?
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Prescriptivism
Moral statements are universal
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Give one criticism of prescriptivism
No valid reason for following a certain prescription; different preferences; "ought" judgements ARE obj.
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Give one strength of prescriptivism
Logical - we often prescribe courses of acion when making moral judgements
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R.M Hare
Ethical statements are universal expressions of opinion, prescribed to others
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Subjectivism
Each person's views are relative to them and can't be judged due to this
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Realism
Moral statements are facts about objective features of the world.
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Anti-realism
The denial of an objective reality
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Objectivism
Truth is objectively real regardless of culture.
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G.E Moore
Argued against ethical naturalism, saying that "good" can't be a natural property
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F.H Bradley
Moral statements express propositions; some of which are proven true by obj. features of world
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Ethical naturalism
Good and bad are observable qualities. Can be reduced to non-ethical properties – e.g wants, needs.
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Give one strength of ethical naturalism
Moral properties are part of the world
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Ethical non-naturalism
Ethical statements express propositions that cannot be reduced to non-ethical properties. No way to define good/bad.
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Is-ought gap
Hume; can't make logical move from fact to opinion
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Good cannot be defined.

Back

Naturalistic fallacy

Card 3

Front

Moral statements are objectively true or false.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Moral statements can't be proved to be true or false

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Moral statements are expressions of feelings

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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