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What is this Thing Called Metaethics?

What is this Thing Called Metaethics? PDF Author: Matthew Chrisman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1315438321
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Book Description
Are moral standards relative? Are there moral facts? What is goodness? If there moral facts are how do we learn about them? These are all questions about metaethics, the branch of ethics that studies ethical properties, statements, attitudes and judgements. To the uninitiated it can appear abstract and far removed from its two more brash cousins, ethical theory and applied ethics, yet it is one of the fastest-growing and most exciting areas of ethics. What is this thing called Metaethics? demystifies this important subject and is ideal for students coming to it for the first time. Beginning with a brief historical overview of metaethics Matthew Chrisman introduces and assesses the following key topics: moral reality: including questions about naturalism and non-naturalism, moral facts, and the distinction between realism and antirealism; moral language: does language represent reality? What mental states are expressed by moral statements? moral psychology: Hume's theory of motivation and the connection between moral judgement and motivation; moral knowledge: including moral disagreement, the distinction between internalist and externalist theories of knowledge, and theories of objectivity and relativism in metaethics; nonnaturalism; expressivism; error-theory; naturalism; contemporary theories and arguments in metaethics, including Derek Parfit, Simon Blackburn, John McDowell, Christine Korsgaard and Alan Gibbard; new directions in metaethics, such as 'metaepistemology' and 'metanormative theory'.

What is this Thing Called Metaethics?

What is this Thing Called Metaethics? PDF Author: Matthew Chrisman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1315438321
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Book Description
Are moral standards relative? Are there moral facts? What is goodness? If there moral facts are how do we learn about them? These are all questions about metaethics, the branch of ethics that studies ethical properties, statements, attitudes and judgements. To the uninitiated it can appear abstract and far removed from its two more brash cousins, ethical theory and applied ethics, yet it is one of the fastest-growing and most exciting areas of ethics. What is this thing called Metaethics? demystifies this important subject and is ideal for students coming to it for the first time. Beginning with a brief historical overview of metaethics Matthew Chrisman introduces and assesses the following key topics: moral reality: including questions about naturalism and non-naturalism, moral facts, and the distinction between realism and antirealism; moral language: does language represent reality? What mental states are expressed by moral statements? moral psychology: Hume's theory of motivation and the connection between moral judgement and motivation; moral knowledge: including moral disagreement, the distinction between internalist and externalist theories of knowledge, and theories of objectivity and relativism in metaethics; nonnaturalism; expressivism; error-theory; naturalism; contemporary theories and arguments in metaethics, including Derek Parfit, Simon Blackburn, John McDowell, Christine Korsgaard and Alan Gibbard; new directions in metaethics, such as 'metaepistemology' and 'metanormative theory'.

What is this thing called Ethics?

What is this thing called Ethics? PDF Author: Christopher Bennett
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136963510
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
'This is an excellent introduction to ethics, and will be of great help and interest to undergraduate students, their tutors, and their lecturers ... It presents a very fair and balanced – not to mention comprehensive and subtle – examination of the subject ... The chapters are full of interesting and thought-provoking examples, and the writing is clear and engaging.' – Michael Brady, University of Glasgow, UK What is morality? How do we define what is right and wrong? How does moral theory help us deal with ethical issues in the world around us? This engaging introduction explores these central questions and more in a highly readable manner. Christopher Bennett eases the reader in with examples of contemporary and relevant ethical problems, before looking at the main theoretical approaches and key philosophers associated with them. Topics covered include: life and death issues such as abortion and global poverty the meaning of life major moral theories such as Utilitarianism, Kantian Ethics and Virtue Ethics critiques of morality from Marx and Nietzsche. What is this thing called Ethics? contains many helpful student-friendly features. Each chapter concludes with a useful summary of the main ideas discussed, study questions, and annotated further reading. This is an ideal introduction to ethics not only for philosophy students but for anyone coming to the subject for the first time.

New Waves in Metaethics

New Waves in Metaethics PDF Author: Michael S. Brady
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230294898
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 310

Book Description
Metaethics occupies a central place in analytical philosophy, and the last forty years has seen an upsurge of interest in questions about the nature and practice of morality. This collection presents original and ground-breaking research on metaethical issues from some of the very best of a new generation of philosophers working in this field.

Oxford Studies in Metaethics

Oxford Studies in Metaethics PDF Author: Russ Shafer-Landau
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Book Description


From Reasons to Norms

From Reasons to Norms PDF Author: Torbjörn Tännsjö
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048132851
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 175

Book Description
Metaethics is the inquiry into the nature of morality (or ethics, I use the words ‘morality’, ‘morals’, and ‘ethics’ as synonyms). When we pass moral judgements, what kind of claims are we then making? I speak of this as the semantic metaethical question. a re there moral facts, to be discovered by us and existing independently of our thoughts and conceptualisation? I speak of this as the ontological or me- physical metaethical question. a nd, if there are, can we know about them; and, if we can, how do we get this kind of knowledge? I speak of this as the epistemic metaethical question. a ll these metaethical questions, the semantic, the ontological, and the epistemic ones, are raised and discussed in this book, but they are not the core questions raised. I have been more concerned with another kind of questions, which deserve to be called metaethical as well: what are the problems of morality? a re there many different moral questions, or, do they all, in the final analysis, reduce to only a few, or perhaps just one? t his question is of special importance to a non-naturalist objectivist and realist like the present author, who believes that we do make truth-claims when we pass moral judgements and who believes that there is a truth in these matters so that we must face the possibility that even our most cherished moral judgements may be false.

Companions in Guilt Arguments in Metaethics

Companions in Guilt Arguments in Metaethics PDF Author: Christopher Cowie
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 042984641X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
Comparisons between morality and other ‘companion’ disciplines – such as mathematics, religion, or aesthetics – are commonly used in philosophy, often in the context of arguing for the objectivity of morality. This is known as the ‘companions in guilt’ strategy. It has been the subject of much debate in contemporary ethics and metaethics. This volume, the first full length examination of companions in guilt arguments, comprises an introduction by the editors and a dozen new chapters by leading authors in the field. They examine the methodology of companions in guilt arguments and their use in responding to the moral error theory, as well as specific arguments that take mathematics, epistemic norms, or aesthetics as a ‘companion’, and the use of the companions in guilt strategy to vindicate claims to moral knowledge. Companions in Guilt Arguments in Metaethics is essential reading for advanced students and researchers working in moral theory and metaethics, as well as those in epistemology and philosophy of mathematics concerned with the intersection of these subjects with ethics.

The Meaning of 'Ought'

The Meaning of 'Ought' PDF Author: Matthew Chrisman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199363013
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
The word 'ought' is one of the core normative terms, but it is also a modal word. In this book Matthew Chrisman develops a careful account of the semantics of 'ought' as a modal operator, and uses this to motivate a novel inferentialist account of why ought-sentences have the meaning that they have. This is a metanormative account that agrees with traditional descriptivist theories in metaethics that specifying the truth-conditions of normative sentences is a central part of the explanation of their meaning. But Chrisman argues that this leaves important metasemantic questions about what it is in virtue of which ought-sentences have the meanings that they have unanswered. His appeal to inferentialism aims to provide a viable anti-descriptivist but also anti-expressivist answer to these questions. "This is a remarkably bold and interesting book. Chrisman challenges nothing less than the entire conceptual framework within which most previous metaethics (and indeed, much other contemporary philosophy) has been done, and advances a very ambitious rethinking of the theoretical space. It's not only ambitious, but also extremely imaginative and smart, and Chrisman's scholarship is at a rare level, as he has assimilated a literature that is unusually broad both in terms of field and historical scope."-Stephen Finlay, Professor of Philosophy, University of Southern California

Metaethics from a First Person Standpoint

Metaethics from a First Person Standpoint PDF Author: Catherine Wilson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781783741991
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 134

Book Description
Metaethics from a First Person Standpoint addresses in a novel format the major topics and themes of contemporary metaethics, the study of the analysis of moral thought and judgement. Metathetics is less concerned with what practices are right or wrong than with what we mean by 'right' and 'wrong.' Looking at a wide spectrum of topics including moral language, realism and anti-realism, reasons and motives, relativism, and moral progress, this book engages students and general readers in order to enhance their understanding of morality and moral discourse as cultural practices. Catherine Wilson innovatively employs a first-person narrator to report step-by-step an individual's reflections, beginning from a position of radical scepticism, on the possibility of objective moral knowledge. The reader is invited to follow along with this reasoning, and to challenge or agree with each major point. Incrementally, the narrator is led to certain definite conclusions about 'oughts' and norms in connection with self-interest, prudence, social norms, and finally morality. Scepticism is overcome, and the narrator arrives at a good understanding of how moral knowledge and moral progress are possible, though frequently long in coming. Accessibly written, Metaethics from a First Person Standpoint presupposes no prior training in philosophy and is a must-read for philosophers, students and general readers interested in gaining a better understanding of morality as a personal philosophical quest.

A Book of Metaethics

A Book of Metaethics PDF Author: Andrew Minase
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595144675
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 174

Book Description
Philosophy needs a nonphilosophy that comprehends it; it needs a nonphilosophical comprehension just as art needs nonart and science needs nonscience. The entire set of moral functions here requires at least five variables as shown: two subject matters, cause level, time, and the transformation of moral values as the result of initiative taken by a moral agent. In principle, moral autonomy is expanded by the increase in energy produced through the process of interactions between de dicto morality and de re morality. Time is only part of one's ethical succession process. Hatred blocks the way that love reaches the verdict. Both love and hatred can give a cause to judge people and matters around them. Soul composes of one's spirit, mind and contingencies to its own destiny. Love of the meek does not contest justice. The subjects of love deliver love of the meek to find them in the domain of the humble, from where the subject's moral succession begins.

Philosophical Ethics

Philosophical Ethics PDF Author: Stephen Darwall
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429977980
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
This book shows how Hobbes, Mill, Kant, Aristotle, and Nietzsche all did ethical philosophy? It introduces students to ethics from a distinctively philosophical perspective, one that weaves together central ethical questions.