Naturalists

• Wittgenstein moved to Cambridge and studied under Bertrand Russell
• The 'Circle' led by Moritz Schlick attracted young philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein for a time
• The 'Fact Value Distinction' was discussed by David Hume and G.E. Moore
• Kant's Logical Naturalism

  Morality by its very nature is logical and ordered
• Kant's Logical Naturalism


  Kant sought to substantiate universal ethical norms through the use of logic
• Kant's Logical Naturalism


  Only logically and naturally consistent actions were moral
• G.E. Moore criticised Utilitarian attempts to associate moral goodness with pleasure or happiness
• Observations of usual results in the natural world are not without value to ethics
• The group focused on

  • The nature of factual knowledge and science
• Kant's Logical Naturalism

  Actions that were contradictory if universalised were automatically non-moral
• Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein (along with the Vienna Circle) inspired the 'Logical Positivist' movement
• Kant's Logical Naturalism


  Actions that treated humans as mere means could never be universalised
• Kant's Logical Naturalism


  Kant's work also strayed into forms of teleological naturalism
• G.E. Moore's Open Question Argument challenged the idea that goodness could be defined as synonymous with pleasure or happiness
• G.E. Moore rejected any idea that goodness could be defined as synonymous with any other concept
• David Hume and G.E. Moore argued that the movement from observable facts in nature to the assertion of automatic ethical values and rules was not logical
• Logical Positivism


  • Emphasised science or logic as the only way to discover factual knowledge, rejecting all other 'knowledge' as factually meaningless
• Goodness (Moore)


  A simple, irreducible concept that cannot be broken down into component parts or defined using other ideas
• Pleasure turning to addiction

  Labeling the first pleasurable experience of a class 'A' drug such as heroin as 'good' or neutral in a moral sense is questioned
• Taking recreational drugs might be pleasant to the user
• Naturalism


  Asserts that ethical norms can be held as factual knowledge and deduced by various methodologies depending on the theorist
• Aquinas's theological naturalism

  Defines goodness as when one acts in accordance with the correct inherent purpose (telos) of an object or process
• Non-religious Teleological Naturalism


  Asserts we can know through observation of the natural world how best things function
• The Recovery of Normative Ethics

  1. After the end of WWII, characters such as Witgenstein and Elizabeth Anscombe helped restore ethical dialogue

  2. New understandings of the meaning of ethical terms were found

  3. Normative theories such as Virtue Ethics blossomed for the first time since the Enlightenment because of Elizabeth Anscombe, Phillip Foot, Iris Murdoch, and Alisdair Macintyre

  4. John Rawls and Peter Singer gave rise to new forms of Utilitarianism

  5. Peter Strawson in the late 1960's helped start a modern strain of Kantian ethics
• Users pleasure from recreational drugs


  We can question if it is morally good
• Naturalism (Cognitivists) claims that ethical norms can be held as factual knowledge and deduced by various methodologies depending on the theorist
• Logical Positivists led to a crisis in western ethics as all ethical norms began to be questioned, leading to increasing ethical relativism
• For naturalists, there is no difference between facts and values, the 'The fact value distinction' does not exist for them
• Goodness was ultimately just good and not automatically associated with other factors
• Aquinas's theological naturalism


  Attempts to substantiate ethical facts such as sex for reproduction through reference to the Divine and Natural Laws
• Non-religious Teleological Naturalism is rooted in ancient Greeks, notably Aristotle
• Good acorn


  • One that germinates and produces a new strong tree
• Scripture and tradition reveal that sex is for reproduction
• F. H. Bradley's 1876 work 'Ethical Studies' returned to Aristotle's thinking asserting humans work as part of a wider system
• David Hume believed in automatic ethical responses based on observations of consequences
• Good parents


  • Feed, protect, and nurture their children leading to their flourishing
• Hedonic Naturalism


  • Classical Utility believed goodness was synonymous with pleasure and happiness
  • Moral facts could be substantiated through observing consequences of actions and measuring what led to the greatest pleasure
• Bad parents


  • Neglect or undermine their children, leading to their lack of flourishing
• Teleological Naturalism

  • We can know through observation of the natural world how best things function
  • Using things in the way they work is 'going with the grain' rather than against it
  • Patterns of excellence and deficiency occur in human and animal societies due to function and purpose as part of the whole
• Natural Law reveals through observation that sex causes reproduction in the natural world