Overview

Normative ethics asks: “Is stealing wrong?” Meta-ethics asks: “What are you doing when you say stealing is wrong? Are you stating a fact? Expressing a feeling? Or issuing a command?”

Core Idea

Moral Realism vs. Anti-Realism:

  • Realism: Moral facts exist independently of us (like gravity). “Murder is wrong” is true even if everyone loves murder.
  • Anti-Realism: Moral facts do not exist. Morality is invented, subjective, or expressive.

Formal Definition (if applicable)

Emotivism: The view that moral statements are just expressions of emotion. “Stealing is wrong” just means “Boo stealing!” (The Boo-Hurrah Theory).

Intuition

Is morality like math (objective) or like ice cream flavors (subjective)?

  • If it’s like math, how do we “see” moral facts? (The Queerness Argument).
  • If it’s like ice cream, why do we argue about it? (We don’t argue about chocolate vs. vanilla).

Examples

  • Divine Command Theory: Morality comes from God. (A meta-ethical view about the source of morality).
  • Cultural Relativism: “Good” means “socially approved.”
  • Error Theory: All moral statements are false because they try to describe moral facts that don’t exist (like talking about unicorns).

Common Misconceptions

  • “It’s useless word games.” (It determines whether we can judge Nazis. If relativism is true, we can’t say the Nazis were objectively wrong, just that we disagree with them.)
  • Is-Ought Problem: You can’t derive an “ought” from an “is.” (Hume). Just because something is natural doesn’t mean it ought to be done.
  • Moral Epistemology: How do we know moral truths? Intuition? Reason?
  • Thick vs. Thin Concepts: “Good” is thin. “Cruel” is thick (it describes facts and evaluates them).

Applications

  • Law: Are laws based on morality?
  • Psychology: Are we born with a moral sense?

Criticism / Limitations

It’s very abstract. You can study meta-ethics all day and still be a bad person.

Further Reading

  • Mackie, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong
  • Moore, Principia Ethica