NihilCredo comments on What is Metaethics? - Less Wrong

31 Post author: lukeprog 25 April 2011 04:53PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (550)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: NihilCredo 26 April 2011 10:58:27PM 0 points [-]

How neat is the dichotomy between cognitivists and non-cognitivists? Are there significant philosophical factions holding positions such as

  • "Murder is wrong" is a statement of belief, but it also expresses an emotion (and morality's peculiar charm comes from appealing both to a person's analytical mind and to their instincts)
  • Some people approach morality as a system of beliefs, others as gut reactions, and this is connected to their personalities in interesting ways
  • Or perhaps the same person can shift over time from gut reactions to believing in absolute laws to believing that morality is a natural phenomenon, paralleling for example their growth from infant to child to adult

et cetera?