PHIL 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Meta-Ethics, Moral Realism, Moral Absolutism
Document Summary
Ethics: the branch of philosophy that study morality, or right and wrong behavior. Metaethics: the study of the foundations of morality itself. Grounding problem: the search for a foundation for our moral beliefs, something solid that would make them true in a way that is clear, objective, and unmoving. Moral realism: the belief that there are moral facts, the same way that there are scientific facts. Any moral proposition can only be true or false. Moral absolutism: there are absolute standards against which moral questions can be judged. Moral relativism: more than one moral position on a given topic can be correct. Descriptive: people"s moral beliefs differ from culture to culture. Normative: it"s not your beliefs, but moral facts themselves that differ from culture to culture. If every culture is the sole arbiter of what"s right for it, that means no culture can actually be wrong.
