Best Book of 2001: Natural Goodness. The year 2020 marks the centenary of the birth of one of modern Britain’s most brilliant philosophers, and also one of its least well-known.
When Philippa Foot died ten years ago, on her ninetieth birthday, she left behind only one monograph, Natural Goodness, published when she already an octogenarian. A mere 115 pages long, it packs in more insight than almost every other of her contemporaries’ much more voluminous oeuvres. Foot argued for a conception of morality that avoided both belief in some transcendental source of value, such as God, and the standard naturalist alternative which claimed moral judgements are at root nothing more than expressions of approval or disapproval, without any objective grounding. For Foot, the needs which human beings objectively have as natural animals give us reasons for action which are independent of our desires. That a child needs looking after, for example, is a fact, one which generates reasons for a parent to provide that care. Image © Bill Foot.
E: Meta-ethical approaches - Intuitionism. F: Meta-ethical approaches – Emotivism. Episode 32, Meta-Ethics (Part IV - Further Analysis and Discussion) Booklet 2 de and fa. Ethics for A-Level - Chapter 6. Metaethical Theories - Open Book Publishers. 1 A.
J. Ayer, ‘A Critique of Ethics’, p. 21. But in every case in which one would commonly be said to be making an ethical judgment, the function of the relevant ethical word is purely ‘emotive’. It is used to express feeling about certain objects, but not to make any assertion about them.1 1In purely length terms, this is a longer chapter than any other in this textbook. 2Rather, we suggest that you choose specific sections of the chapter, perhaps informed by your course specifications or our suggested tasks at the end of the chapter, and engage with those sections in any one sitting. 3The prefix “meta” is derived from the Greek for “beyond”.
Applied Ethics is the study of how we should act in specific areas of our lives; how we should deal with issues like meat-eating, euthanasia or stealing (to use examples familiar to this textbook). 4Nobody is perfect, and it is therefore possible that some of you are not avid football fans. Meta ethics. Metaethics – Philosophy A Level. Overview – Metaethics A level metaethics is about what moral judgements – e.g.
“murder is wrong” – mean and what (if anything) makes them true or false. The syllabus covers 5 metaethical theories. These theories can be categorised as either realist or anti-realist theories. They can also be categorised as either cognitivist or non-cognitivist theories. Having these two sets of categories (realism/anti-realism and cognitivism/non-cognitivism) can make it a bit confusing because there is overlap between the categories. So, it’s important to be clear on the differences between what the categories are about: Realism/anti-realism is about whether or not mind-independent moral properties existCognitivism/non-cognitivism is about what people mean when they make moral judgements The theories are linked with each other to some degree.
Essay "Good is meaningful". Discuss (40) Here is an example of an essay done under timed conditions on an exam question set in June 2018.
I have added my comments in italics. Notice that this is essentially the same question as “Good is meaningless”, Discuss. But they can only ever ask a question once in the wording we have above – s the second version on this theme remains a possible question it the future. What other wordings can you think of on this theme?
It’s an interesting exercise thinking up some more. Many scholars such as AJ Ayer would suggest that ‘good’ is meaningless, because it cannot be verified analytically or synthetically, placing it in the category of subjective opinion, based solely on emotion. A Good, clear introduction laying out the parameters of the question in terms of analytic and synthetic truth. Bradley in his book “Ethical Naturalism’ would suggest that good is an absolute, observable fact of the world, which has direct relevance to our position and role in society. Yes, this is the key point.
MetaethicNotes. A Level Theme 1 Meta Ethics by Andy Skinnard from Dialogue Nov 2011. A level Theme 1 Meta Ethics Jon Mayled from RS Review April 2013. Meta Ethics (OCR exam board) Meta-ethics Roadmap: Structure of Thought. Meta-ethics Roadmap: Structure of Thought by patrickking December 22, 2017 Great.
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