38/40 A** Ethics Essay RS OCR Meta-ethics
Q “Good is meaningful” Discuss
In meta-ethical debate there is much debate, specifically around whether
the term ‘good’ is cognitivist, objective and meaningful. Naturalists and
intuitivists argue that the term ‘good’ is meaningful because it is cognitive
and objective, however they disagree on whether it is absolute or relative.
However, emotivists argue that meta-ethical terms are never meaningful
because they are simply evincing emotions, and they are unverifiable.
This essay endeavours to show that emotivists offer a strong argument
out of the three, however it is wrong to simply reduce ethical terms to
mere ‘emotions’ therefore Wittgenstein’s language game theory shows
how ethical terms such as ‘good’ are meaningful even though they are not
cognitive. I will refer to scholars such as Aquinas, Bentham, Mill, Bradley,
Foot, Moore, Ross, Pritchard, Hume, Ayer, Wittgenstein and Hare…
Q “Good is meaningful” Discuss
In meta-ethical debate there is much debate, specifically around whether
the term ‘good’ is cognitivist, objective and meaningful. Naturalists and
intuitivists argue that the term ‘good’ is meaningful because it is cognitive
and objective, however they disagree on whether it is absolute or relative.
However, emotivists argue that meta-ethical terms are never meaningful
because they are simply evincing emotions, and they are unverifiable.
This essay endeavours to show that emotivists offer a strong argument
out of the three, however it is wrong to simply reduce ethical terms to
mere ‘emotions’ therefore Wittgenstein’s language game theory shows
how ethical terms such as ‘good’ are meaningful even though they are not
cognitive. I will refer to scholars such as Aquinas, Bentham, Mill, Bradley,
Foot, Moore, Ross, Pritchard, Hume, Ayer, Wittgenstein and Hare…
