'The term good or bad have no objective factual basis that make them true or false' Discuss
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Oxford A Level Religious Studies for OCR
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'Boethius’ ideas were successfully updated by St Anselm' Discuss(40)
How far is it true to claim that it is not necessary to resolve the conflicts between divine attributes.(40)
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'The term good, bad, right and wrong have no objective factual basis that makes them
true or false in describing something’
Naturalists claim that right or wrong have objective factual basis.
Intuitists also claim that it holds objective factual information.
Evaluate emotivism.
Cognitivism consists of naturalism and intuitionism= statement is either true or false.
Non-cognitivism=ethical statements are neither true or false = cannot be measure empirically or
logically (not analytic or synthetics) = emotivism
The terms good have no objective factual basis that makes them true or false in describing
them. The term good is a non cognitive statement that is neither analytic or synthetic.
Cognitivists such as Thomas Aquinas(naturalists) and G.E Moore (intuitionists) argue that
statements are either true or false and do have objective factual basis. Through critical analysis
it will become clear that the term good has no objective factual basis because such statements
are non-cognitive.
The term good, bad, right or wrong have no factual basis that make them true or false in
describing something rather they are just a reflection of our moral sentiments.
Whilst maintaining morality is cognitive, intuitionists assert that moral facts are not to be
discovered, but rather are self-evident and known intuitively. Moral judgements are not linked to
empirical evidence rather moral judgments are based on the infallible intuitive knowledge of
good things. Moore argued that good ‘cannot be defined’. It can't be analysed or broken down,
but it can be recognised. Good is a simple notion which Moore likened to the colour yellow. We
can only demonstrate our knowledge by pointing to the colour yellow, it can be shown and
known yet it cannot be defined as Moor wrote ‘everything is what it is and not another thing’. Yet
his approach is flawed and seems to contradict his understanding of morality as being cognitive
and intuitive. If many people have different intuition, understanding of good and bad this
questions whether immorality can be cognitive and intuitive. Nietzsche convincingly raised the
issue of ethical colour blindness to highlight how different intuitions may point to different ideas
of right and wrong. What one may see as yellow, another may see as green. Therefore, as good
cannot be verified synthetically or analytically what is good or bad is meaningless and are
simply utterances that are relative to emotive responses. Therefore, the term good has no
factual basis that makes it true or false in describing something. Instead, then we say
something is good or bad we are ‘merely expressing certain moral statements’.
The term good, bad, right or wrong have no factual basis that make them true or false in
describing something rather they are reflection our subjective opinions.
F.H Bradley argues that we can know what is good by observing one’s place in society. Moral
Perspective is determined from self-realisation and observing one’s position in society.
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