Ethics - Chapter 20 - Moral Nihilism

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According to error theorists, just as religion crucially depends on the supernatural, morality essentially depends on its being objective and providing us with categorical reasons. If this central assumption is mistaken, then the entire enterprise of morality is __.

moral qualities

Nihilists deny that there are any __. There are no moral requirements. Nothing is morally good. Nothing merits praise or blame.

categorical reasons.

A reason to do something that applies to a person regardless of her desires.

expressivists

According to __, we are not trying to speak the truth when making moral judgments. We are not making an effort to describe the way the world is. We are not trying to report the moral features possessed by various actions, motives, or policies. Instead, we are venting our emotions, commanding others to act in certain ways, or revealing a plan of action.

facts and values.

According to nihilists, there is a rigid fact-value distinction, which basically says that there is a sharp difference between __

error theorists

All __ have agreed that the core mistake that undermines morality is its assumption that there are objective moral standards that supply each of us with an excellent reason for obedience, regardless of what we care about.

amoralist

An __ is someone who sincerely makes moral claims, but is entirely unmoved by them. Such people create a serious problem for expressivism

ad hominem attack

An attempt to undermine the position of an opponent by criticizing his motives or character.

ethical relativism

But nihilists are no fans of __. Relativists believe in moral goodness, moral duty, and moral virtue. Nihilists don't.

no moral values, and no moral truth.

Expressivists cannot escape the worry about moral equivalence, however. Their official view is that there are __

1. reject 2. deny

Expressivists deny this. They __ the idea that moral claims are trying to represent the way things are. They deny that there are any moral features. They __ that moral judgments could ever offer accurate descriptions of reality.

moral disagreement

Expressivists see __ as a clash of emotions or personal commitments.

3. Don't steal!

How might an expressivist translate the claim that stealing is wrong? 1. I disapprove of stealing. 2. The act of stealing has the moral feature of being wrong. 3. Don't steal! 4. Both a and c

true or false.

If expressivists are right, no moral claim is either __ And so moral contradictions disappear.

error theory

If the __ isn't a moral theory, then what is it? In fancy terms, it is a metaphysical theory

expressivism.

In meta-ethics, __ is a theory about the meaning of moral language. It analyzes moral judgments as expressions of emotions, orders, or commitments, none of which are the sorts of things that can be true or false.

ethical objectivism

Moral nihilists join with relativists in opposing __.

human creation

Morality is wholly a __—in this, nihilists and relativists are united

factual claims.

One of the basic ideas behind expressivism is that moral claims function very differently from straightforward __

confidence

The basic philosophical motivation behind expressivism is pretty straightforward. Expressivists want a way to have __ in morality while rejecting ethical objectivity. In doing so, they also want to avoid the difficulties that hamper cultural relativism and ethical subjectivism.

moral disagreement

The biggest problem for relativism and subjectivism (as we saw in the previous chapter) is that these views either generate contradictions or are unable to explain __. Expressivists handle both problems with ease.

metaphysical

The branch of philosophy that discusses the nature of reality, what exists, and what does not exist.

Why not? Simple: there is nothing for them to be true of. There are no moral facts. And so no moral claims can be accurate, since there are no moral facts for them to record.

The error theory of morality is built upon these doubts. It is defined by four essential claims: No moral judgments are true.

Thus we always lapse into error when thinking in moral terms. We are trying to describe the moral qualities of things when we make moral judgments. But since nothing has any moral qualities, all of our moral claims are mistaken. Hence the error.

The error theory of morality is built upon these doubts. It is defined by four essential claims: Our sincere moral judgments try, and always fail, to describe the moral features of things.

Nothing is morally good or bad, right or wrong, virtuous or vicious. A careful inventory of the world's contents will reveal all sorts of scientific qualities: being symmetrical, being a liquid, being two feet long, carbon-based, spherical, and so on. But the list will contain no moral features.

The error theory of morality is built upon these doubts. It is defined by four essential claims: There are no moral features in this world.

Knowledge requires truth. If there is no moral truth, there can be no moral knowledge.

The error theory of morality is built upon these doubts. It is defined by four essential claims: There is no moral knowledge.

moral nihilism (from the Latin word nihil, meaning "nothing").

The form of moral skepticism that says that the world contains no moral features, and so there is nothing for moral claims to be true of. Its two major forms are the error theory and expressivism.

the error theory

The metaethical view that there are no moral features in this world; no moral judgments are true; our sincere moral judgments try, and always fail, to describe the moral features of things; and there is no moral knowledge.

fact-value distinction,

The view that there is a sharp difference between facts and values; value claims are not factual, and so cannot be true.

the error theory and expressivism.

There are two important forms of moral nihilism:

3. A reason that applies to us regardless of whether acting on it gets us what we want

What is a categorical reason? 1. A reason that applies to us only because acting on it will make us better off 2. A reason that applies to us only because acting on it will get us what we want 3. A reason that applies to us regardless of whether acting on it gets us what we want 4. A reason that applies to us only if we accept its authority

2. To vent our feelings

What is the function of moral claims, according to expressivism? 1. To describe the moral features of things 2. To vent our feelings 3. To describe the moral codes of our society 4. All of the above

4. The idea that morality is objective and requires things of us independently of our desires

What is the fundamental "error" that the error theory seeks to debunk? 1. The idea that our culture is superior to other cultures 2. The idea that one's own moral views are better than other people's 3. The idea that moral claims seek to describe the world 4. The idea that morality is objective and requires things of us independently of our desires

3. They are competing theories that cannot both be true.

What is the relationship between ethical relativism and moral nihilism? 1. Ethical relativism is a version of moral nihilism. 2. Moral nihilism is a version of ethical relativism. 3. They are competing theories that cannot both be true. 4. They are completely independent theories that could, in principle, both be true.

1. Expressivism is a form of moral nihilism.

What is the relationship between expressivism and moral nihilism? 1. Expressivism is a form of moral nihilism. 2. Moral nihilism is a form of expressivism. 3. They are competing theories that cannot both be true. 4. They are completely independent theories; the truth of one doesn't require the truth of the other.

2. The main aim of moral judgments is to express emotions.

Which of the following claims would an error theorist not accept? 1. There are no moral features in this world. 2. The main aim of moral judgments is to express emotions. 3. No moral judgments are true. 4. There is no moral knowledge.

1. Moral judgments aim to describe the moral features of things.

Which of the following claims would cultural relativists and error theorists both accept? 1. Moral judgments aim to describe the moral features of things. 2. Whether a moral judgment is correct depends on the standards of one's culture. 3. There is no moral knowledge. 4..There are no moral features in the world.

2. A person who is not motivated by her moral judgments

Which of the following is impossible, according to expressivism? 1. A person who is motivated by her moral judgments 2. A person who is not motivated by her moral judgments 3. A moral judgment that is not based on a fundamental error 4. A moral judgment that is neither true nor false

4. Expressivism

Which of the following theories is inconsistent with the claim that there can be valid moral arguments? 1. Ethical objectivism 2. Ethical subjectivism 3. Ethical relativism 4. Expressivism

Expressivists

__ are not so pessimistic. They agree with error theorists in denying that ethics is objective and in denying that moral duties supply us with categorical reasons. But since expressivists do not believe that moral thinking rests on these foundations, they don't feel the need to accuse the rest of us of error. Moral talk does pretty much what it is supposed to do—give vent to our emotions, express our feelings about things, and signal our commitments. And so there is little reason to worry.

Error theorists

__ are the most cynical of the lot, thinking as they do that morality is a bankrupt enterprise. This thought stems from their view that our moral thinking is based on assumptions that turn out to be false. If the foundations of an entire way of thinking are corrupt, then the whole worldview must come tumbling down. That's the way atheists see religious claims. And that is the way error theorists see moral ones.

Moral claims

__ assert nothing. They describe nothing. Instead, they express our feelings.

1. Error theorists 2. Expressivists

__ claim that our moral judgments are always mistaken. __deny this, while also denying that our moral claims can ever offer an accurate take on reality.

Factual claims

__ try to represent the way the world really is. If expressivism is right, moral claims serve quite different purposes.

Expressivists

__ warn us not to be fooled by the superficial similarity between factual claims (water is wet) and moral ones (torture is immoral).

moral claims

according to expressivists, __ are not in the business of holding up a mirror to the world. Their job is to vent our feelings, give orders and commands, and express our commitments. Since they manage to do that just fine, there is no reason to charge them with error.