MetaEthics: Fact Value

1.  Philosophizing about ethics
 Analyzing the terms used in ethical
discourse
 Unpacking the structure of ethical theory

2.  The theory that value statements can be
defined in terms of factual statements.
 Fact: What is signified by empirically
verifiable statements.
 Value: What is signified by an evaluation of
a sentence.
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_naturalism

3.  The theory that moral facts exist but are
not natural.
 Moral facts are discovered by intuition.
 The task for philosophers is to define the
terms used and the source of the
definition of the terms in philosophizing.

4.  This theory holds that moral judgments
do not have truth values.
 Moral judgments are expressions of our
attitudes.
 These judgments express our feelings and
help us to persuade others to act as we
desire.

5.  The ethical theory that the good or right
thing to do can be known directly via
the intuition.
 G. E. Moore claims that a concept like
the ‘Good’ is unanalyzable.

6.  The Humean Thesis: Ought statements
cannot be derived from ‘is’ statements.
 The Platonic Thesis: Basic value terms
refer to nonnatural properties.
 The Cognitive Thesis: Moral statements
are either true or false, which can be
known.
 The Intuition Thesis: Moral truths are
discovered by intuition and are self-
evident upon reflection.

7.  Value judgments do not have truth
values, they are more than mere
expression of attitudes.
 Moral judgments are universal
prescriptions.
 Moral judgments are given to guide
actions.

8.  A dependency relationship between
properties or facts of one type with
properties or facts of another type.
 In metaethics, supervenience is the idea
that moral properties supervene or
emerge out of natural ones.
 For example, badness comes out of pain
or goodness comes out of happiness.

9.  This principle states that if some act is
wrong (or right) for one person in a
situation, then it is wrong (or right) for any
relevantly similar person in that kind of
situation.
 It is a principle of consistency that aims
to eliminate irrelevant considerations
from ethical assessments.

10.  Principles are central to moral reasoning.
 Principles serve as major premises in our
moral arguments.
 We acquire or learn a basic set of
principles.
 Then we learn when to use or when to
subordinate those principles.
 We choose when, where, and why to
apply our specific principles.