Moral Anti-Realism Flashcards
What is Moral Anti-Realism?
Argues that there are no mind-independant moral facts/properties
What is Error theory?
(cognitivist)
Makes two claims:
-ontotlogical: Moral properties/facts dont exist outside the mind
-semantic: All moral statements are false.
There are no objective moral truths
What is Emotivism?
(Non-cognitivist)
Moral statements are not factual, rather they express our approval/disapproval for a certain action. Moral judgements are not beliefs.
Issues including:
Emotivism
It makes all moral views entirely subjective. For examole, we may hate taxes but still thunk theyre right. “genocide is wrong” hardly captures the seriousness of it.
Prescriptivism
Prescriptivists think moral statements are reccommendations/instructions. They describe how we think everyone should act in any similar situation.
Hare talks of ‘universalising’ moral standards: -we have to be consistent in our moral beliefs. This fixes the issue of not having moral disagreements in emotivism, but if someone has awful but consistent views they cant be critisized.
Issue including:
Can anti-realism account for how we use moral language
(Diagreements)
-Emotivists: No, moral diasgreements would have no substance, as it is a matter of your own feelings/opinion. Its like disagreeing about coffee, its just personal taste.
-Prescriptivism: Partly, we can critisize someone for being inconsistent, but two people with opposing but consistent views cannot critisize each other.
Pt 2
(Persuation)
-Emotivists: Yes persuation is the only use of moral language for them, in the same way that moral claims express approval/disaproval, I can helo someone see a certain action as right or wrong.
-Prescriptivism: Yes, to say something is right or wrong is to make reccommendations on how to act. In this way prescriptivism does think moral claims aim to influence the behaviourism of others.
Issues including:
Pt. 3
(‘is lying wrong?’ example)
Non-cognitivism struggles with statements such as “It is true that lying is wrong” and “is lying wrong”. An emotivist would tanslate the second to “is lying boo?” and a prescriptivist “is lying disapproved?” neither of which make much sense. So we can say that non-cognitivism offers an incomplete view of moral language
Issues including:
Non-cognitivism turns clearly valid arguments into invalid ones.
(cog)
P1: If tormenting the cat is bad, etting your brother to do it is bad.
P2:Torrmenting the cat is bad
C: Getting your brother to torment the cat is bad.
Fora cognitivist this argument is valid because “tormenting the cat is bad” has a consistent meaning throughout.
Issues including:
Pt.2
Non-cog
P1: If tormenting the cat is bad,getting your brother to do it is bad.
P2: “Boo! Tormenting the cat!”
C: Getting your brither to torment the cat is bad.
For a non-cognitivist this no longer follows, it has made a valid argument invalid, as it is incapable of having a consistent meaning for the phrase “tormenting the cat is bad”. The issue is the same for a prescriptivist, “I dont reccomend tormenting the cat.”
Issue including:
The problem of accounting for moral progress
In favour, we could say that we have made progress towards abolishing slavery, etc. We might think we havent made good progress, but either way we talk as if there is such a thing as moral progress.
The anti-realist, in claiming therre are no mind-independant moal facts, cant say there is moral progress, as they think there is nothing to compare it to.
Issue including:
Whether anti-realism becomes moral nihilism
Nihilism is a reection of a set of or all beliefs, thinking that moal acts are meaningless. Ani-realists and nihilists believe that there are no mind-independant moal porperties. Emotivists/Prescriptivists think that moal claim are just an expression of (dis)approval, but nihilists would argue that we dont have a duty to behave in a certain way because there are no mind-independant moral properties.
Issues including:
Pt.2
- It is hard for emotivism to avoid nihilism, they could say that it is incoherent to say moral values are meaningless when we do really care about good and bad.
- Prescriptivists think moral claim are universal, but it is impossible to univesalise the view that there are no moral values as that is a moral claim itself, so nihilism is not compatible with prescriptivism.
