Transcript lesson 6. intuitionism

INTUITIONISM: GE Moore,
PRITCHARD & ROSS
LO: I will understand GE Moore’s
idea of naturalistic fallacy.
STARTER TASK:
Read through the exam essay from
2011’s Summer exam, and level and
mark it.
Recap
End
• Write a definition of ethical
naturalism.
• What are the principles of
ethical naturalism?
• Give 2 arguments in favour of
ethical naturalism.
• Give 2 arguments against
ethical naturalism.
The is/ought distinction
Write one sentence to
summarize the is/ought
distinction.
End
• Difference between prescriptive
and descriptive statements.
• Separating ought from is.
• Difference from ought and is.
Background
• Bentham, Mill, Kant and Aristotle are
all ethical naturalists because they all
argued that value statements can be
defined in terms of factual
statements.
• G.E. Moore denies the possibility of
this because of the fact-value
problem. The naturalistic fallacy led
to the dominance of meta-ethics in
the twentieth century as attempted
responses to the problem began to
develop, namely, intuitionism,
emotivism and prescriptivism…
Background continued…
• These responses tend to fall into two
camps:
– Moral Realism (or cognitivism) which
asserts that moral claims are making
reference to facts about the world. E.g. in
the same way as saying ‘it is raining,’ the
statement, ‘killing someone is wrong’ is
stating a fact of the matter.
– Moral Anti-Realism (non cognitivism) says
that certain statements (such as religious,
aesthetic and moral) are not referring to
the world at all and so are not capable of
being true or false in any real sense. There
are no moral facts, and therefore, no moral
knowledge.
Intuitionism
• The philosopher G.E. Moore criticised
naturalism. Instead he said we have
an infallible intuitive knowledge of
good things.
• e.g. I don’t need to observe a murder
to know that killing someone is wrong
– I just know it is.
• In answer to the question, ‘what is
good?’ Moore tells us that, in fact, it
cannot be defined, but is known
intuitively.
Simple v Complex
Moore argued that there are simple and
complex ideas.
• Complex = ‘horse’ can be broken down
into animal, mammal, quadruped,
equine.
• Simple = ‘yellow’ we can’t break it
down any further.
• Moral terms are simple. The word ‘good’
is indefinable and un-analysable
because it is simple and the concept
cannot be broken down further.
The Open-Question
Argument
• What if, for example, you define good as
pleasure? That is, ‘good’ is reduced to
(means exactly the same things as)
pleasure. But if I was then to ask you, “I
get pleasure poisoning the water system,
but is it good?” then all I am really saying
is, “I get pleasure from poisoning the
water system, but is it pleasure?” My first
question seems to be a valid moral
question, whereas the latter question
makes no sense at all.
The Open-Question
Argument Cont…
• Put in Moore’s terms, my first question is an ‘open
question’ because it makes moral sense to ask it,
whereas the latter formulation of the question is a
‘closed question’ and, in fact, isn’t a question at all.
Therefore, ‘good’ and ‘pleasure’ cannot mean the
same thing! This led Moore to conclude that good
cannot be defined by non-ethical terms: Simply
put, good is good!
• If ‘good’ cannot be defined in terms of any natural
property it means that good is a mysterious thing
indeed. How are we to be aware of goodness if we
cannot define it? This is why Moore’s theory is
known as intuitionism. We intuit goodness.
Naturalistic fallacy
• Against naturalism.
• Good and bad are not natural
properties.
• You cant verify moral statements.
• You can have open questions.
GE Moore
Research in more detail:
a) Naturalistic fallacy
b) Why is yellow like good?
c) How do we know if something is
good or not?
Moral judgements cannot be
proven
• So, Moore argues that moral judgements
cannot be proven empirically.
• We cannot observe pleasure and then say
that goodness is pleasure.
• W.D. Ross accepted Moore’s version of
ethics and also added that in any given
situation moral duties or obligations
become apparent.
These are called prima facie duties.
Prima facie means ‘at first appearance’
Prima Facie Duties
• Ross listed the following as
prima facie duties:
Keeping a promise, reparation
for harm done, gratitude,
justice, beneficence, selfimprovement and nonmaleficence
He acknowledged that this list
might not be complete.
REVIEW