Ethics Tuesday Jan 8, 2002

Emotivism - Theory about the meaning of moral statements (emotional expressions)

there are no "moral facts"

Moral statements are simply expressions of emotional attitudes and subjective (individual) preferences.

Morality is about people attempting to persuade others to adopt their subjective performances.

example of emotivism: Abortion is immoral=I don't like/approve of abortion and I don't want you to either.

example of emotivism: Chocolate ice cream is good=I like chocolate ice cream.

No objective is right or wrong its just personal feelings

Objections
1. our belief that wanton murder, torture, rape etc... is wrong merely a subjective feeling. There is nothing objectively wrong with wanton murder.

2. People argue at length about morality-this seems to imply facts are issue.

assignment: Read pages 87-101 for Thursday 10th of January 2002