Transcript File
Two Extremes • Absolutism maintains that there are absolute truths and, especially, absolute moral truths to which all human beings must adhere if they are to be moral Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Two Extremes • Relativism maintains that there are no absolutes of any kind, but that everything, especially morality, is “relative” to specific cultures, groups, or even individuals Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Propositions and Truth • Truth applies to propositions that are meaningful statements describing states of affairs – A state of affairs is an occurrence, an event, or a happening – It is neither true or false – It either occurs or it does not occur Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Propositions and Truth • A true proposition describes a state of affairs that was, is, or will be occurring • A false proposition describes a state of affairs that did not occur, is not occurring, or will not occur • Only propositions are true or false, never states of affairs – they either occur or do not occur Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Are There Any Absolute Truths? • Truth is absolute and not relative to belief, knowledge, person, place, or time • If propositions are stated accurately, this will always hold – We may not know which propositions are true or false, but that really has nothing to do with whether propositions really are true or false Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Types of Propositions • Analytic propositions are truths that are known to be absolute, because we know the definitions and meanings of words – Ex. All triangles have three sides Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Types of Propositions • Internal sense or intern state propositions are propositions we know to be true merely because we have the experience – we alone truly know our own internal states – Ex. I have a headache Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Types of Propositions • Empirical, or external sense, propositions describe a state of affairs that occurs in the external world of which we have evidence through our external senses – There is a controversy in philosophy as to whether such propositions can be known to be true Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Types of Propositions • Moral propositions are propositions about morality or those that have moral import – Ex. Human beings should never kill other human beings Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.