1. Ethical non-naturalism
Michael Lacewing
© Michael Lacewing

2. Cognitivism vs. non-cognitivism
What are we doing when we make moral judgments?
Cognitivism: moral judgments, e.g. ‘Murder is wrong’
Aim to describe how the world is
Can be true or false
Express beliefs that the claim is true
Non-cognitivism: moral judgments
Do not aim to describe the world
Cannot be true or false
Express attitudes towards the world

3. Three quick arguments
If there were no facts about moral right and wrong, it wouldn’t be possible to make mistakes.
Morality feels like a demand from ‘outside’ us, independent of what we want or feel.
How is moral progress possible, unless some views about morality are better than others?

4. Types of realism
Moral realism: good and bad are properties of situations and people, right and wrong are properties of actions
Moral judgements are true or false depending on whether they ascribe the moral properties something actually has
What is the nature of these properties?

5. Moore on the ‘naturalistic fallacy’
Moral properties, e.g. good, may be correlated with certain natural properties, e.g. happiness
But they are not identical
Goodness is a simple, unanalyzable property
Cp. ‘yellow’ – can’t be defined, even in terms of wavelengths of light
To identify good with any natural property is the ‘naturalistic fallacy’
Unlike colour, goodness can’t be investigated empirically – it is a ‘non-natural’ property

6. The ‘open question’ argument
Moore supports his claim that good is unanalysable with this argument:
‘Is pleasure good?’ is an open question: Both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ are possible answers
‘Is pleasure pleasure?’ is not an open question
Conclusion: Goodness (and other moral properties) can’t be the same property as any other property
What we can ask is what has the property of goodness?
This is what it means to say ‘pleasure is good’

7. Concepts and properties
But consider:
‘Is water H2O?’ is an open question, but ‘Is water water?’ is not.
But water just is H2O!
The concept of water is a different concept from that of H2O, but they are the same property.
Two ways of thinking about the same ‘stuff’
But ‘Water is H2O’ is not analytically true
The same could be true for goodness and pleasure.

8. Moore’s intuitionism
If ethical non-naturalism is right, how do we find out about moral properties?
Moore: we consider the claim, e.g. ‘pleasure is good’, itself
These claims are ‘intuitions’ – we cannot prove them, but we know them to be true or false by rational intuition
But how? They are not analytically true and cannot be established by empirical investigation
Therefore, they must be synthetic a priori.

9. Self-evidence ‘Self-evident’ is not the same as ‘obvious’.
Ross: ‘when we have reached sufficient mental maturity and have given sufficient attention to the proposition, it is evident without any need of proof or of evidence beyond itself’
Our ability to make these judgements needs to develop first, and we need to consider the question very carefully.
Cp. Necessary truths (possibility, mathematics)

10. Objections
Intuitionism doesn’t tell us how morality is related to natural facts
What is it about hurting someone that makes an action wrong?
Intuitionism doesn’t explain moral knowledge
And it doesn’t help us know how to resolve moral disagreement

11. Development
Suppose we could give reasons for thinking that pleasure is good, e.g. because it forms part of a flourishing life for human beings. Is it self-evident that being part of a flourishing life makes something good?
If not, we need to give a further reason for this judgment. And we can ask the same question of any further reason we give.

12. Reflective equilibrium
Alternatively, we reject self-evidence
All moral judgments are supported by other beliefs that we must consider
This repeats for those other beliefs
All reflection on what is good occurs within a framework of reasons
We justify our judgments by balancing judgments in individual cases and general moral beliefs to reach ‘reflective equilibrium’