Meta-ethical theories:
Key Terms:
Absolutism: the view that morals are fixed, unchanging truths that
everyone should always follow
Relativism: the view that moral truths are not fixed and are not
absolute. What is right changes according to the individual, the situation,
the culture, the time and the place
Naturalism: ethical theories that hold that morals are part of the natural
world and can be recognised or observed in some way
Intuitionism: ethical theories that hold that moral knowledge is received
in a different way from science and logic
Vienna Circle: a group of philosophers known as logical positivists who
rejected claims that moral truth can be verified as objectively true
Emotivism: ethical theories that hold that moral statements are not
statements of fact but are either beliefs or emotions
Hume’s Law: you cannot go from an ‘is’ – a statement of fact – to an
‘ought’ – a moral
Naturalistic fallacy: G.E.Moore’s argument that it is a mistake to define
moral terms with reference to other properties (a mistake to break
Hume’s law)
Key Terms:
Absolutism: the view that morals are fixed, unchanging truths that
everyone should always follow
Relativism: the view that moral truths are not fixed and are not
absolute. What is right changes according to the individual, the situation,
the culture, the time and the place
Naturalism: ethical theories that hold that morals are part of the natural
world and can be recognised or observed in some way
Intuitionism: ethical theories that hold that moral knowledge is received
in a different way from science and logic
Vienna Circle: a group of philosophers known as logical positivists who
rejected claims that moral truth can be verified as objectively true
Emotivism: ethical theories that hold that moral statements are not
statements of fact but are either beliefs or emotions
Hume’s Law: you cannot go from an ‘is’ – a statement of fact – to an
‘ought’ – a moral
Naturalistic fallacy: G.E.Moore’s argument that it is a mistake to define
moral terms with reference to other properties (a mistake to break
Hume’s law)
