What is prescriptivism?
says that moral judgements express (non-cognitive) instructions that aim to guide behaviour.
So, according to prescriptivism, when someone says “murder is wrong!”, what they really mean is something like “don’t murder people!”
Why is prescriptivism a non cognitive theory?
When you instruct someone to do something – e.g. “shut the door” – you are not expressing a belief that is capable of being true or false. Hence, prescriptivism is a non-cognitivist theory.
Who is the key developer of prescriptivism?
R.M Hare (1919-2002) ‘The language of morals’ (1952)
Hare agrees with emotivism that moral judgements express (non-cognitive) attitudes.
But where they differ is that Hare argues this isn’t main point of moral judgements: The main point of moral judgements is to guide conduct.
For example, “stealing is wrong” implies the imperative “don’t steal”.
What is Hare’s analysis of thin concepts like ‘good’, ‘right’, and ‘bad’?
Hare argues that the meaning of these terms is not simply to describe but mainly to commend or criticise.
What does ‘thin concepts’ mean?
In ethics, “thin” moral concepts refer to broad, general evaluative terms like “good” or “bad,” which provide minimal descriptive content, while “thick” moral concepts are more specific and descriptive, incorporating both evaluative and descriptive elements, like “cruel,” “generous,” or “courageous.”.
What example does Hare use to illustrate how value judgements work?
The example of a ‘good strawberry’, he poses “what do we mean by a good strawberry, a sweet and juicy one?”
But description is clearly not the only thing he mean when he says “this is a good strawberry” as theres a language fault. I i said “This strawberry is good bc its sweet and juicy” and the statement is descriptively flawed because it would be like saying “this is a sweet and juicy strawberry because it is sweet and juicy”.
What are the sset of standards Ayer says we draw up?
in order to commend (or criticise) something, we must assume a certain set of standards. In the example above, the standards against which I commended the strawberry were ‘sweet and juicy’.
So I am assuming a standard for strawberries and commending this strawberry against my assumed standard.
