Contractualism, Utilitarianism, and Meta-Ethical Intuitionism

First-Order vs. Second-Order Assessment:
- On the first-order (normative) level, utilitarianism can lead to horrific consequences when applied strictly to concrete situations.
- On the second-order (meta-ethical) level, utilitarianism appears highly attractive because it is centered on the promotion of individual welfare across the board.
The Explanatory Deficit of Utility Theory:
- Although utilitarianism rightly recognizes individual welfare as central, it cannot explain why individual welfare is intrinsically important.
- In utilitarian theory, the value of individual welfare cannot be derived or justified internal to the framework; it must simply be taken as an unproven baseline assumption.

The Contractualist Model:
- Contractualism conceptualizes morality through the metaphor of rational agents deliberating around a table to determine duties, individual rights, and principles of right and wrong.
- Moral truths are established via mutual agreement under fair, unforced conditions.
Verbatim Definition of Wrong Action:
- An act is wrong if its performance, under the circumstances, would be disallowed by any system of rules for regulation of behavior which no one could reasonably reject as a basis for informed, unforced general agreement.
- The core evaluative principle relies on whether a rule is one that no affected party could reasonably reject.
Justification of Individual Welfare:
- Contractualism achieves a significant meta-ethical advantage over utilitarianism by successfully justifying the importance of individual welfare.
- Rational agents coming together to establish governing moral rules would reasonably agree that individual welfare must be factored in as a fundamental concern.
- This consensus process provides the necessary rational justification for individual welfare that utility theory lacks.

Objection 1: Non-Naturalism and Metaphysical Strangeness:
- Meta-ethical intuitionism relies on a non-natural realm of moral properties, a position historically advocated by G. E. Moore and inherited by H. A. Prichard and W. D. Ross.
- Humans lack empirical access to non-natural properties.
- Positing non-natural moral entities introduces what J. L. Mackie describes as a "queer" (peculiar or strange) metaphysical realm, which lacks the concrete reality of sensory experiences such as pain and pleasure.
Objection 2: Epistemological Unverifiability:
- Intuitionism posits that moral knowledge is acquired through a distinct cognitive faculty of intuition.
- As A. J. Ayer argued, intuitions cannot be empirically verified, confirmed, or tested.
- There exists no objective mechanism or faculty test to verify whether an individual has correctly intuited a genuine moral fact or is mistaken.
Objection 3: The Motivation Deficit:
- Intuitionism fails to explain how non-natural moral facts could exert any motivational influence over human behavior.
- Human actions are motivated by concrete psychological states—specifically pleasures, pains, and passions—rather than abstract, non-natural entities.

Independence of Meta-Ethics and Normative Ethics:
- Adopting a specific meta-ethical (second-order) stance does not dictate a single corresponding normative (first-order) commitment.
- Being a meta-ethical intuitionist does not require an individual to be an intuitionist at the first-order normative level.
Case Study: G. E. Moore:
- Meta-Ethical Level: G. E. Moore is an intuitionist because he regards fundamental moral properties (such as "good") as non-natural and unanalyzable.
- Normative Level: On the first-order level, Moore is a utilitarian—specifically an "ideal utilitarian," as identified by W. D. Ross.
- Definition of Right Action: Moore defines right action as that which maximizes the total amount of intrinsic good, combining a non-naturalist meta-ethics with a maximizing consequentialist normative framework.

Textual Source:
- T. M. Scanlon's meta-ethical critique of intuitionism and development of contractualism are detailed on pages $108$ and $109$ of his work.
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