midterm

Moore/"moose"

natural properties (ex:survival/pleasure) while goodness is a non-natural property that is simple (a.k.a indefinable property) —> the open question (someone can reasonably ask whether __ is good")

Hume : moral judgment requires sentiment

sentiment: when facts have served their fullest; final moral verdict depend on internal sentiments —→ reasons establish facts and relationships

Psychological sentiments ground moral approval. (think shared emotional sensibilities)

is-ought guy: A statement about how things are does not, by itself, tell you how things should be. —> You need a separate moral or value-based premise to make that leap

Ayer: moral truths are unverifiable non-cognitive utterances.

Emotivism (non-cognitive):

pseudo-concepts: they add no factual, empirically verifiable meaning to an empirical proposition

Cognitivism holds that moral statements (e.g., “stealing is wrong”) express beliefs that can be true or false, while Non‑Cognitivism argues that such statements express emotions, attitudes, and therefore lack truth value.

Ayer’s emotivism attacks Moore’s cognitivist realism by redefining moral statements as non‑cognitive emotional expressions, thereby rejecting the idea that they can be true or false.

Smith

Realist: This means moral judgments are beliefs about what I would desire if I were fully rational. Such beliefs do not directly motivate; instead, they cause the appropriate desires in rational agents, and those desires then motivate action

keeps moral truth as objective belief content while accepting Humean motivation by making the motivational link depend on the rational agent’s own rational desires,

The practicality requirement states that sincere moral judgments inherently have practical force, meaning they naturally motivate agents to act.

objectivity requirement captures the common-sense intuition that moral claims purport to be true independently of human preferences.

the standard belief–desire model as holding that beliefs represent facts while desires supply the motivation to act.

Ross: prima facie duty of beneficence and non-malificence, fidelity and reparation

prima-facies: Ross defines beneficence as the duty to help others and improve their condition, while non-maleficence is the distinct duty not to injure or harm others.

Ross understands intuition as the rational, reflective recognition of genuine moral duties,

intellectual reflection can directly apprehend objective moral duties, rejecting Hume's claim that moral judgment requires sentiment and Ayer's claim that moral truths are unverifiable non-cognitive utterances.

Reparation arises from an agent's past wrongful action that requires making amends, while fidelity arises from commitments such as making promises.

Haidt : morality encompasses foundations beyond care/harm and fairness, specifically including purity (sacredness) and loyalty.

Haidt's first core claim states that intuition comes first and moral reasoning follows to justify or explain that initial reaction.

Haidt's second claim explicitly states that moral reasoning primarily serves social persuasion and reputation rather than impartial truth-seeking.

Haidt's third claim emphasizes that morality binds and builds groups through psychological mechanisms (loyalty, authority, shared sacred values) rather than just individualist contractual self-interest.

Haidt's fourth core claim asserts that morality involves more than harm and fairness, emphasizing that loyalty, authority, and purity are also fundamental moral foundations.

Hobbes

Hobbes grounds moral rules and political obligation in rational self-interest, where individuals accept constraints to secure their own preservation and peace.

Hobbes’s contract solves insecurity by targeting peace and safety,

Giving up the liberty to attack others in exchange for receiving protection from attack is the classic Hobbesian example of mutual concession under reciprocal restraint.

Rawls : justice

contract designs fair institutions and opportunities.

reciprocal restraint: each person relinquishing certain personal liberties under the expectation and condition that everyone else does so as well.

Rawls introduces the veil of ignorance to hide personal traits such as race, wealth, gender, and talents so agents cannot tailor principles of justice to their own advantage.

: fair equality of opportunity and the difference principle (greatest benefit to the least advantaged).

Nietzsche: master morality vs. slave morality (+) historical variation does not by itself prove the normative claim that all values are equally valid

Nietzsche explains that master morality originally identified "good" with the noble, strong, and elevated persons who affirmed their own high status.

In the revaluation of values, slave morality reverses master values by elevating humility and suffering into virtues and condemning aristocratic pride and conquest as evil.

Nietzsche asserts that master morality values strength and nobility, while slave morality arises from weakness, promoting humility and victimhood as virtues.

ressentiment as reactive resentment that shapes a reversal and revaluation of values by the powerless.

central question: "Who created our values, under what conditions, and whose interests they served?"

—> Nietzsche specifically challenges the English psychologists for assuming that "good" was first applied by beneficiaries who praised useful or unselfish actions.