Introduction to Meta-ethics

Meta-ethics is Concerned with two key questions

1. Can moral claims be justified?

2. What do we mean when we say something is right or wrong?

Can moral claims be justified?

All ethical theories are based on a starting assumption or basic belief, for example natural moral law is based on the starting assumption’God Created the universe according to a well ordered plan’. Meta ethics questions the assumptions on which ethical theories and discussions rely. It examines origins of moral ideas.

What do we mean when we say something is right or wrong?

When we say something wrong, are we expressing your preference or a fact?

There are two Metaethical views?

• moral realism (language is cognitive)

• Moral anti realism (moral language is non-cognitive)

Moral realism

• there are moral facts in the same way as there are scientific facts, as such moral propositions are true or false

• Ethics is a kind of science – it tries to find moral truths

• Moral realism asserts that there is a right answer

• Moral truths exist in the same way as the laws of nature exist

• Something is right or good if it corresponds to the moral truths

Questions for the moral realist

• if morality is based on facts, where do these come from? – Moral facts can be viewed as getting them from God from natural Things

• How can we discover what they are ? – Scripture/religious language -an external source, God? (Ethical monotheism) - are they inherent in the natural world, like natural laws?

How can we discover what the moral facts are?

• Can moral facts be deduced from observing the natural world and people's behaviour - ethical naturalism

• ethical non-naturalism asserts that moral standards exist and can only be known through intuition or by God's command

Ethical naturalism and non-naturalism both assert that moral standards exist and that moral claims are facts

There are no moral facts, just moral attitudes. Moral propositions don't refer to objective features of the world; morality is subjective, it is about preference

There is no right answer

“Cannabalism is wrong“

• The truth of the statement depends on the ‘community' that it is expressed in

• For a statement to be true it must college with other statements within that community

• For example, this statement is true when expressed in the setting of western culture but would be false is expressed whilst living with the Korowai tribe in the jungles of New Guinea

Ethical language is non-cognitive, morality is not about objective facts it is about subjective emotions

When we use words like 'good' and ‘bad‘ we are expressing a preference