Evaluating the meta-ethical theories

Overview

Recall questions on ethical and non-ethical statements, objectivity, intuition as a route to moral terms, moral terms as emotion, the relative strength of the three positions, and moral debate.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Give the case that ethical and non-ethical statements are essentially the same.

   Model answer

   Both look and behave alike in ordinary speech, both are asserted, argued over and believed, and a naturalist holds both are made true by features of the world.

2. 2

   Give the case that ethical statements differ in kind from non-ethical ones.

   Model answer

   Moral claims carry prescriptive force and cannot be settled by observation, and Hume's Law suggests no set of factual claims will ever entail one.

3. 3

   Argue that ethical statements are not objective.

   Model answer

   Moral views vary sharply between cultures and eras, no moral observation or experiment settles a dispute, and emotivism explains the disagreement without positing moral facts.

4. 4

   Argue that ethical statements are objective.

   Model answer

   Some judgements, such as the wrongness of slavery, are treated as discoveries rather than preferences, and moral reformers assume they were right before others agreed.

5. 5

   Give the case that moral terms are known by intuition.

   Model answer

   People recognise cruelty as wrong immediately, without argument, and any moral system must begin from starting points that are seen rather than proved.

6. 6

   Give the case against knowing moral terms by intuition.

   Model answer

   There is no evidence that such a faculty exists, intuitions conflict widely, and what feels self-evident may simply be an upbringing internalised.

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