Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 86 views

    Moral Skepticism: Moral Skepticism Class Metaethical Modal Moral Knowledge Is Impossible Moral Realism

    Uploaded by

    Mercy Mission
    Moral skepticism argues that objective moral truths cannot be known and that moral claims are incapable of being true or false. There are three main forms of moral skepticism: moral error theory, which holds that all moral claims are false; epistemological moral skepticism, which acknowledges we cannot justify believing moral claims but takes no position on their truth; and non-cognitivism, which views moral claims as expressions of attitudes rather than assertions of truth or falsity. Proponents of moral skepticism have included ancient Greek philosophers as well as modern thinkers such as Hume, Nietzsche, and Mackie.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Moral Skepticism: Moral Skepticism Class Metaethical Modal Moral Knowledge Is Impossible Moral Realism

    Uploaded by

    Mercy Mission
    86 views2 pages
    Moral skepticism argues that objective moral truths cannot be known and that moral claims are incapable of being true or false. There are three main forms of moral skepticism: moral error theory, which holds that all moral claims are false; epistemological moral skepticism, which acknowledges we cannot justify believing moral claims but takes no position on their truth; and non-cognitivism, which views moral claims as expressions of attitudes rather than assertions of truth or falsity. Proponents of moral skepticism have included ancient Greek philosophers as well as modern thinkers such as Hume, Nietzsche, and Mackie.

    Original Title

    Moral skepticism

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Moral skepticism argues that objective moral truths cannot be known and that moral claims are incapable of being true or false. There are three main forms of moral skepticism: moral error theory, which holds that all moral claims are false; epistemological moral skepticism, which acknowledges we cannot justify believing moral claims but takes no position on their truth; and non-cognitivism, which views moral claims as expressions of attitudes rather than assertions of truth or falsity. Proponents of moral skepticism have included ancient Greek philosophers as well as modern thinkers such as Hume, Nietzsche, and Mackie.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    86 views2 pages

    Moral Skepticism: Moral Skepticism Class Metaethical Modal Moral Knowledge Is Impossible Moral Realism

    Uploaded by

    Mercy Mission
    Moral skepticism argues that objective moral truths cannot be known and that moral claims are incapable of being true or false. There are three main forms of moral skepticism: moral error theory, which holds that all moral claims are false; epistemological moral skepticism, which acknowledges we cannot justify believing moral claims but takes no position on their truth; and non-cognitivism, which views moral claims as expressions of attitudes rather than assertions of truth or falsity. Proponents of moral skepticism have included ancient Greek philosophers as well as modern thinkers such as Hume, Nietzsche, and Mackie.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 2

    Moral skepticism

    Main article: Moral skepticism

    Moral skepticism (or moral scepticism) is a class of metaethical theories in which all members
    entail that no one has any moral knowledge. Many moral skeptics also make the stronger, modal
    claim that moral knowledge is impossible. Moral skepticism is particularly against moral realism
    which holds the view that there are knowable and objective moral truths.

    Some proponents of moral skepticism include Pyrrho, Aenesidemus, Sextus Empiricus, David
    Hume, Max Stirner, Friedrich Nietzsche, and J.L. Mackie.

    Moral skepticism is divided into three sub-classes:

     Moral error theory (or moral nihilism).

     Epistemological moral skepticism.

     Non-cognitivism.[17]

    All of these three theories share the same conclusions, which are as follows:

    (a) we are never justified in believing that moral claims (claims of the form "state of
    affairs x is good," "action y is morally obligatory," etc.) are true and, even more so
    (b) we never know that any moral claim is true.

    However, each method arrives at (a) and (b) by different routes.

    Moral error theory holds that we do not know that any moral claim is true because

    (i) all moral claims are false,


    (ii) we have reason to believe that all moral claims are false, and
    (iii) since we are not justified in believing any claim we have reason to deny, we are not
    justified in believing any moral claims.

    Epistemological moral skepticism is a subclass of theory, the members of which include


    Pyrrhonian moral skepticism and dogmatic moral skepticism. All members of epistemological
    moral skepticism share two things: first, they acknowledge that we are unjustified in believing
    any moral claim, and second, they are agnostic on whether (i) is true (i.e. on whether all moral
    claims are false).

     Pyrrhonian moral skepticism holds that the reason we are unjustified in believing any
    moral claim is that it is irrational for us to believe either that any moral claim is true or
    that any moral claim is false. Thus, in addition to being agnostic on whether (i) is true,
    Pyrrhonian moral skepticism denies (ii).
     Dogmatic moral skepticism, on the other hand, affirms (ii) and cites (ii)'s truth as the
    reason we are unjustified in believing any moral claim.

    Noncognitivism holds that we can never know that any moral claim is true because moral claims
    are incapable of being true or false (they are not truth-apt). Instead, moral claims are imperatives
    (e.g. "Don't steal babies!"), expressions of emotion (e.g. "stealing babies: Boo!"), or expressions
    of "pro-attitudes" ("I do not believe that babies should be stolen.")

    Normative ethics
    Main article: Normative ethics

    Normative ethics is the study of ethical action. It is the branch of ethics that investigates the set
    of questions that arise when considering how one ought to act, morally speaking. Normative
    ethics is distinct from meta-ethics because normative ethics examines standards for the rightness
    and wrongness of actions, while meta-ethics studies the meaning of moral language and the
    metaphysics of moral facts.[14] Normative ethics is also distinct from descriptive ethics, as the
    latter is an empirical investigation of people's moral beliefs. To put it another way, descriptive
    ethics would be concerned with determining what proportion of people believe that killing is
    always wrong, while normative ethics is concerned with whether it is correct to hold such a
    belief. Hence, normative ethics is sometimes called prescriptive, rather than descriptive.
    However, on certain versions of the meta-ethical view called moral realism, moral facts are both
    descriptive and prescriptive at the same time.[18]

    Traditionally, normative ethics (also known as moral theory) was the study of what makes
    actions right and wrong. These theories offered an overarching moral principle one could appeal
    to in resolving difficult moral decisions.

    At the turn of the 20th century, moral theories became more complex and were no longer
    concerned solely with rightness and wrongness, but were interested in many different kinds of
    moral status. During the middle of the century, the study of normative ethics declined as meta-
    ethics grew in prominence. This focus on meta-ethics was in part caused by an intense linguistic
    focus in analytic philosophy and by the popularity of logical positivism.

    Virtue ethics

    You might also like

    pFad - Phonifier reborn

    Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

    Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


    Alternative Proxies:

    Alternative Proxy

    pFad Proxy

    pFad v3 Proxy

    pFad v4 Proxy