Metaethics: Moral Realism, Emotivism, Expressivism, and the Naturalistic Fallacy
When someone says that “torture is wrong,” we usually go on to ask whether the claim is true, whether it fits certain moral theories, or how it applies to a concrete case. Metaethics asks something else: what are we doing when we make such a claim? Are we describing a fact, expressing an attitude, prescribing conduct? Are there moral facts independent of human minds? If so, how do we know them? If not, in what sense can morality be objective or rational? ...