Metaethics
Evaluate cognitivist and non-cognitivist accounts of moral language, truth, motivation and disagreement.
How to study A-level Philosophy
Learn each position as an argument, connect it to its strongest objection and reply, then decide what conclusion the dialectic supports.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Moral cognitivism treats moral utterances as truth-apt claims, while non-cognitivism treats their primary function differently.
Exam cue: Identify whether a view accepts moral propositions, moral truth and mind-independent moral properties.
Concept 2
Moral realism includes naturalist and non-naturalist accounts; anti-realist routes include error theory, emotivism and prescriptivism.
Exam cue: Distinguish a semantic claim about language from a metaphysical claim about properties.
Concept 3
Key tests concern the open-question argument, is-ought gap, moral motivation, disagreement, progress, verification and Mackie's relativity and queerness arguments.
Exam cue: Test how the view explains reasoning, disagreement and apparent moral progress.
Targeted study blocks
Specified core
Secure the claim and its place in the debate
Compare naturalism, intuitionism, error theory, emotivism and prescriptivism using the specified semantic, epistemic, motivational and metaphysical challenges.
Philosophical work
Reconstruct, challenge and judge the argument
For each account, state what a moral sentence does, what would make it true if anything and how the account handles rational disagreement.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Equating non-cognitivism with the claim that moral discussion is meaningless.
Guardrail: Do not replace philosophical reasoning with quotation, biography, intuition or a philosopher's name.
Confusing Mackie's error theory with emotivism.
Guardrail: Do not replace philosophical reasoning with quotation, biography, intuition or a philosopher's name.
Claiming that Moore's open-question argument alone proves non-naturalism true.
Guardrail: Do not replace philosophical reasoning with quotation, biography, intuition or a philosopher's name.
Memory anchors
Cognitivism
Cognitivism treats moral utterances as expressions of truth-apt beliefs.
Naturalism
Moral naturalism identifies moral properties with natural properties.
Intuitionism
Intuitionism treats basic moral properties as non-natural and known by intuition.
Error theory
Error theory says moral claims aim at objective truth but are systematically false.
Prescriptivism
Prescriptivism treats moral judgements as universal prescriptions for action.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
What is moral cognitivism?
Which metaethical commitment defines moral realism?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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