Ethical Language (Meta Ethics)

Question 1

What is the keyword? - A statement that is subject to being true or false.

Answer 1

Cognitive

Question 2

What a normative ethic?

Answer 2

A theory that tells you how you ought to behave.

Question 3

What is cognitive language?

Answer 3

Moral values that can be derived from sense experience.

Question 4

What is non-cognitive language?

Answer 4

A theory that Ethical statements cannot be derived from sense experience. It isn’t describing the world, but expressing their feelings or telling someone what to do.

Question 5

Who developed the Verification Principle?

Answer 5

A.J Ayer

Question 6

What is an analytic statement?

Answer 6

A statement that is true by definition

Question 7

What is a synthetic statement?

Answer 7

A statement that can be proven true or false by empirical evidence.

Question 8

Give an example of a meaningless statement?

Answer 8

‘God is good’

Question 9

An example of cognitive language concerning abortion

Answer 9

Abortion is wrong. Abortion has the property of wrongness. This statement is objectively true or false.

Question 10

An example of non-cognitive language concerning abortion

Answer 10

Abortion is wrong, ‘I don’t like abortion’

Do not commit abortion.

Question 11

Give an example of an analytic statement

Answer 11

‘A square has 4 corners’

Question 12

Give an example of a synthetic statement

Answer 12

‘The wall is green’

Question 13

What is logical positivism?

Answer 13

It is an applied scientific approach towards philosophy and ethics.

Question 14

What is emotivism otherwise known as?

Answer 14

The Boo Hurrah theory

Question 15

What does C.L Stevenson believe?

Answer 15

He believes that moral statements do express opinions but not in order to vent emotion.

Question 16

What is simple subjectivism?

Answer 16

Emotivism can lead to the idea that “ where morality is concerned, there are no ‘facts’ and no one is ‘right’ “

Question 17

What meta-ethical theory did G.E Moore develop?

Answer 17

Intuitionism

Question 18

What is morality?

Answer 18

The examination of what we mean when we say that a thing or an action is good, bad, moral or immoral.

Question 19

What is ‘the naturalistic fallacy’?

Answer 19

The naturalistic fallacy is an attempt to derive a moral “ought” from an empirical “is.

Question 20

Give an example of ‘The naturalistic fallacy’

Answer 20

Poverty has always been with us, therefore we shouldn’t do anything to help the poor.

Question 21

What are ethical claims according to Ayer?

Answer 21

Meaningless - Because they can’t be empirically verified.

Question 22

What did Bertrand Russell contribute to emotivism?

Answer 22

Bertrand Russell claimed that moral judgements express a wish.

Question 23

What did Rudolph Carnap contribute to emotivism?

Answer 23

Rudolph Carnap considered ethical claims to be commands.

Question 24

What is ‘good’ according to G.E Moore? (Quote)

Answer 24

‘Good is good and that is they end of the matter’

Question 25

What did G.E Moore compare ‘good’ to when trying to express how he saw the meaning of the word ‘good’?

Answer 25

The colour yellow

Question 26

What is G.E Moore’s yellow example?

Answer 26

Good = Good, it is indefinable like the colour yellow, we know what yellow is but we are unable to define it.

Question 27

Who came up with Prima Facie Duties?

Answer 27

W.D Ross

Question 28

What does 'prima facie' mean?

Answer 28

at first appearance. This implies that they are intuitive.

Question 29

What are the 7 Prima Facie Duties?

Answer 29

keeping promises, gratitude, fairness, benevolence, non-malificence, self-improvement, reparation for harm

Question 30

Who criticised G.E Moore’s ‘yellow’ analogy?

Answer 30

Nietzsche

Question 31

What did Nietzsche argue when criticising G.E Moore’s ‘yellow’ analogy?

Answer 31

He argued that one person may see good as one thing whereas one may see good as another, suggesting the issue of - “ethical colourblindness”

Question 32

Who proposed Prescriptivism?

Answer 32

R.M Hare

Question 33

Is Prescriptivism cognitive or non-cognitive?

Answer 33

Non-cognitive

Question 34

Is Emotivism cognitive or non-cognitive?

Answer 34

Non-cognitive

Question 35

Is Intuitionism cognitive or non-cognitive?

Answer 35

Cognitive

Question 36

What did Peter Vardy accuse emotivism of being?

Answer 36

"hot air and nothing else”

Question 37

What did R.M Hare argue?

Answer 37

Hare argued that when we use ethical language, we are prescribing - or recommending - a course of action. 'Good', Hare argued, is an action statement.