Meta ethics

• Meta-Ethics

  The study of the fundamental nature of moral judgments, moral statements, moral attitudes, and moral properties
• Cognitive Ethical Theories


  • Ethical Naturalism
  • Ethical Non-Naturalism
  • Divine Command Theory
• Ethical Naturalism


  The view that ethical value comes from facts about the nature of the world or human nature
• Jeremy Bentham's Utilitarianism

  Human lives focus on maximising pleasure and minimising pain, this should drive all moral decision making
• Happiness

  The sole intrinsic good and all human action should be focused on seeking the greatest good for the greatest number
• Hedonic calculus


  A purely quantitative assessment as Bentham thought pain could be measured, and there was no differentiation in type of pain or pleasure, the pleasure of each individual should count equally
• John Stuart Mill's Act Utilitarianism


  Focuses on rules not actions, like Bentham it is consequentialist, but Mill didn't agree that all pleasures were of equal value and can be measured, and distinguished between higher and lower pleasures
• Higher pleasure


  Intellectual and aesthetic
• Mill's Utilitarianism


  Focused on quality of life rather than amount of pleasure
• Strengths and Weaknesses of Ethical Naturalism


  • Strength: The propositions have factual and empirical nature
  • Weakness: Moore accused naturalist theories of committing the naturalistic fallacy
• Naturalistic fallacy

  The mistake of deriving 'ought' from 'is', i.e. defining goodness in terms of natural properties that can be experienced through the senses
• Neo-Naturalism


  Morality is not about a factual good, but about what leads to a flourishing society, overcoming the naturalistic fallacy by suggesting that social facts about humans lead to the practice of virtues essential to fulfil our nature
• Strengths and Weaknesses of Ethical Naturalism and Non-Cognitivism

  • Strength: The objective nature of right and wrong allows us to assess our actions and many theories give helpful guidelines and allow a justified punishment for those who break them
  • Weakness: Ethical non-cognitivists reject the basis of moral judgements in fact as morality exists of subjective statements for approval
• Ethical Non-Naturalism


  The view that moral knowledge is a property known by intuition or divine command, based on facts and so are open to objective assessment
• Intuitionism


  G.E. Moore's view that moral knowledge comes from the factual property of intuitionism, not religious, more deontological. Good is an irreducible term - a quality that cannot be broken down or analysed but can be recognised and understood
• Pritchard's Intuitionism


  Right/wrong is a duty which we use intuition to work out. When we disagree about morality, someone's moral thinking simply hasn't been developed, so intuition needs developing, it is learnt, not just known
• W.D. Ross's Secular Ethics


  Accepts that some situations may pose conflicting duties and there's not always an obvious choice. Argues that Moore's theory gives no guidance for when people disagree about what is right and wrong. Proposes 6 prima facie duties that we use intuition to choose between when they conflict
• W.D. Ross's 6 Prima Facie Duties


  • Keep promises
  • Pay back harm done to others
  • Compensation
  • Not injuring others
  • Returning favours done to others
  • Not harming innocent people
  • Look after parents
• Strengths and Weaknesses of Intuitionism

  • Strengths: The objective nature of right and wrong enables us to assess our actions and give us guidelines, especially the six prima facie duties, helps us understand what constitutes as moral behaviour. It overcomes the disagreement among ethical naturalists about the underlying basis of what is right or wrong, it is simply intuition, not agape, not pleasure. It fits in with human nature, all of us intuitively make decisions about what's right or wrong
  • Weaknesses: Ethical non-cognitivists reject the idea that there are moral facts, morality is subjective. Where does intuition come from and if people's intuitions differ, how do we know what actually is right or wrong. The six prima facie duties are not intuitively known and their order is subjective, contradicting cognitivism
• Divine Command Theory


  Moral facts are given by God and right and wrong can be seen. As God created us, he is eternal, omnipotent, transcendent creator and all ethics comes from him and our moral character reflects God. Due to the fall, our nature is corrupt and so we became fully reliant on God's understanding of what is right and wrong, which comes through revelation in scripture and conscience
• Strengths and Weaknesses of Divine Command Theory

  • Strengths: It appeals to religious believers, based on an omnipotent, benevolent and entirely just God which makes sense to religious believers. Rules are absolute and deontological, so exceptionless and timeless. It gives a purpose to morality with the promise of an afterlife
  • Weaknesses: The Bible's rules and teachings can be outdated and many can be seen as very immoral or outdated, making it hard to know which ones to follow. We also have no copy of the original text and meanings can get lost in translation. The Euthyphro Dilemma - is something good because God says or does God command it because it is good? The first option means God could command something immoral and it would be seen as right. The second option means morality is independent of God and he is not needed or omnipotent. It also limits human autonomy and can lead to self-interested morality rather than the teachings of Jesus
• There is a debate about whether there is even a thing called right and wrong, with different views on whether morality is cognitive (objective fact), naturalist (based on human nature), non-naturalist (based on divine command), or non-cognitivist (subjective feeling)
• The strengths and weaknesses of the different ethical theories highlight the complexities and challenges in determining what is truly right and wrong