Comment on What is Metaethics?

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:21:03 GMT

you need to solve metaethics, the question of what morality is

The problem isn't that I don't know the answer. The problem is that I don't understand the question.

"Morality" is a word. "Understanding morality" is, first of all, understanding what people mean when they use that word. I already know the answer to that question: they mean a complex set of evolved behaviors that have to do with selecting and judging behaviors and other agents. Now that I've answered that question, if you claim there is a further unanswered question, you will need to specify what it is exactly. Otherwise it's no different from saying we must "solve the question of what a Platonic ideal is".

There are many important questions about morality that need to be answered - how exactly people make moral decisions, how to predict and manipulate them, how to modify our own behavior to be more consistent, etc. But these are part of applied and normative ethics. I don't understand what metaethics is.

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