meta ethics

Question 1

what is meta ethics concerned with

Answer 1

what we mean when we say something is ‘good’

Question 2

how does it differ from normative ethics

Answer 2

normative ethics is concerned with what is ‘good’

Question 3

cognitvism

Answer 3

ethical language expresses idead subject to being proven true or false

Question 4

non cognitivism

Answer 4

ethical language expresses opinions not subject to being proven true or false

Question 5

ethical naturalism

Answer 5

-cognitive
-goodness is something real in the natural world

Question 6

aristotalian naturalism

Answer 6

Aristotle claims goodness = eudaimonia (flourishing)
Flourishing factual feature of natural organisms.

Question 7

who support aristotalian naturalism

Answer 7

Phillipa Foot
-factual, natural difference between a plant that is flourishing and a plant that is not. The same is true for humans.

Question 8

Benthams argument

Answer 8

1. It is human nature to find pleasure good
2. Pleasure is good and we ought to maximise pleasure

Question 9

Humes criticism (especially Bentham)

Answer 9

Humes law
-criticise naturalism and cognitivism
-we cannot deduct conclusivley how to act from a fact

Question 10

What is Moores argument called

Answer 10

Intuinism

Question 11

Intuinism- what is good?

Answer 11

-Moore argues moral truths objective and real
-we know what is good through intuition not through science or logic
-cannot define good using naturalistic properties

Question 12

Moore naturalistic fallacy

Answer 12

• It is a fallacy to assume that something being natural means that it is good.
  -naturalists rely on assumption

Question 13

strengths of intuitionism

Answer 13

-set of core moral principles similar in all societies such as prohibitions on stealing and murder
-shows absolutist moral truth that all humans are somehow apprehending