Meta-ethics

• Meta-ethics 


  Goes further than ethical theories to look at what is meant by terms used like evil
• the euthypro dilemma

  ‘does god command it because it is morally right or is it morally right because god commands it?’

  Ockham argues that things like adultery would be obligatory if god commanded us to do them

  aquinas would ague that our innate sense of morality would inhibit us from committing adultery
• cognitivism

  moral judgments are about making truth claims.

  true or false- not opinion bases
• non-cognitivism


  moral judgments express emotion, preferences or attitude

  there are no moral facts

  relative claims based on opinion
• moral realism

  the view that there are objective moral facts which exist in the world independently to our perceptions of them
• anti realist 


  the view that there are no objective moral facts and values that exist independently of our perception of them
• factual 


  the belief that ethical language makes factual claims that can be verified or falsified
• symbolic 


  refers to the belief that ethical language points beyond itself to express something
• absolute 


  the belief that X is fixed for all people at all time
• relative


  the belief that X can vary depending on place, time and culture
• naturalism - cog

  the belif that values can be defined in terms of some natural property of the world. moral values are fixed and observable in nature
• intuitionalism -cog

  the belief that basic moral truths are not observable in the world. they are undefinable but either true or false
• emotivism - non-cog


  the belief that ethical terms demonstrate approval or disapproval. no moral facts, only attitudes and feelings