Moral realismMoral realism (also ethical realism) is the position that ethicalsentences express propositions that refer to objective features of the world (that is, features independent of subjective opinion), some of which may be true to the extent that they report those features accurately.ExpressivismIn metaethics, expressivism is a theory about the meaning of moral language. According to expressivism, sentences that employ moral terms – for example, "It is wrong to torture an innocent human being" – are not descriptive or fact-stating; moral terms such as "wrong", "good", or "just" do not refer to real, in-the-world properties.Moral supervenienceThe principle of moral supervenience states that moral predicates supervene upon non-moral predicates, and hence that moral facts involving these predicates supervene upon non-moral facts. The moral facts are hence said to be supervenient facts, and the non-moral facts the supervenience base of the former. Moral facts could be about actions, character traits, or situations, e.g., stealing is wrong, Alice is virtuous, or Shane's suffering was morally bad.
Moral relativismMoral relativism or ethical relativism (often reformulated as relativist ethics or relativist morality) is used to describe several philosophical positions concerned with the differences in moral judgments across different peoples and cultures. An advocate of such ideas is often referred to as a relativist.
Christine KorsgaardChristine Marion Korsgaard (; born April 9, 1952) is an American philosopher who is the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy Emerita at Harvard University. Her main scholarly interests are in moral philosophy and its history; the relation of issues in moral philosophy to issues in metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, and the theory of personal identity; the theory of personal relationships; and in normativity in general.
ArgumentAn argument is one or more premises—sentences, statements, or propositions—directed towards arriving at a logical conclusion. The purpose of an argument is to give reasons for one's thinking and understanding via justification, explanation, or persuasion. As a series of logical steps, arguments are intended to determine or show the degree of truth or acceptability of a logical conclusion.Non-cognitivismNon-cognitivism is the meta-ethical view that ethical sentences do not express propositions (i.e., statements) and thus cannot be true or false (they are not truth-apt). A noncognitivist denies the cognitivist claim that "moral judgments are capable of being objectively true, because they describe some feature of the world." If moral statements cannot be true, and if one cannot know something that is not true, non-cognitivism implies that moral knowledge is impossible.J. L. MackieJohn Leslie Mackie (25 August 1917 – 12 December 1981) was an Australian philosopher. He made significant contributions to ethics, the philosophy of religion, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language. Mackie had influential views on metaethics, including his defence of moral scepticism and his sophisticated defence of atheism. He wrote six books. His most widely known, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong (1977), opens by stating, "There are no objective values."
Richard Joyce (philosopher)Richard Joyce (born 1966) is a British-Australian-New Zealand philosopher, known for his contributions to the fields of meta-ethics and moral psychology. Joyce was born in England and raised in New Zealand. He received his PhD from Princeton University in 1998 (studying under Gilbert Harman). He has held positions at the University of Sheffield, the Australian National University, and the University of Sydney.
Contemporary philosophyCurrent period in the history of Western philosophy Contemporary philosophy is the present period in the history of Western philosophy beginning in the early 20th century with the increasing professionalization of the discipline and the rise of analytic and continental philosophy.
Axel HägerströmAxel Anders Theodor Hägerström (6 September 1868 – 7 July 1939) was a Swedishphilosopher. Born in , Jönköping County, Sweden, he was the son of a Church of Sweden pastor. As student at Uppsala University, he gave up theology for a career in philosophy. Teaching there from 1893 until his retirement in 1933, he attacked the then dominant philosophical idealism of the followers of Christopher Jacob Boström (1797-1866).
Naturalism (philosophy)In philosophy, naturalism is the position that only natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe. According to naturalism, the causes of all phenomena are to be found within the universe and not transcendental factors beyond it. In its primary sense, it is also known as ontological naturalism, metaphysical naturalism, pure naturalism, philosophical naturalism and antisupernaturalism.MetaethicsIn philosophy, metaethics (meta-ethics) is the study of the nature, scope, ground, and meaning of moral judgment, ethical belief, or values. It is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by philosophers, the others being normative ethics (questions of how one ought to be and act) and applied ethics (practical questions of right behavior in given, usually contentious, situations).*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.