Against Meta-Ethics - Ethics as First Philosophy
Where to start? What keeps philosophers up at night worrying? I can assure you it isn’t meta-ethics, which I will discuss after I’ve introduced the real villain in this story. What keeps philosophers up at night is something called “ethical naturalism”. That’s the notion that there can be a science of morality, a way of explaining what morality does that is non-subjective and avoids the notions of moral freedom, responsibility, and purpose. Historically, past forms of ethical naturalism have morphed into Eugenics and Social Darwinism, practices which, in their crudest forms have led to the death camps. So, yes, it has kept me up at night. But don’t worry, because there is a philosophical antidote to this horrible disease! It is called “meta-ethics”; and, although I heartily agree that it does help me to get a good night’s rest, I think it actually makes it harder for all of us to understand how ethics works, and it almost seems as if it is designed that way on purpose. Was it?