Objectivity, Subjectivism and Relativism

By the end of today’s lesson you will have:

•Familiarised yourself with the terms ‘objectivity, subjectivism and

relativism• Applied these terms in context

Subjectivity

• Based on personal opinion

• Essentially internal

• Emotive

Objectivity

• Based external facts

• True for everyone• More absolutist

1)Write down 5 examples of a subjective statement and 5 examples of an objective statement

2)Discuss with your partner which of these two brackets you think ‘goodness’ would fall under?

Non - Cognitive

• More subjective • The truth or falsity of

things depends on our beliefs

• Things are subject to moral evaluation and associated with anti-realist

Cognitive • When morality is objective• Deals with making

propositions about things that can be known

• Can be held to be true or false

• Associated with Moral Realism, ethical descriptivism and naturalism

1)Which theories which we have studied so far do you think fall under the brackets or ‘cognitive’ language, and which fall under ‘cognitive language’?

2)DO you think that the statement ‘God is good’ is cognitive or non-cognitive language?

Ethical Non-Naturalism

• There are objective, moral properties (such as the property of ‘goodness’)

• We have intuitions of the moral truths

Ethical Naturalism

• Holds that there are objective moral properties

• But these properties are reducible to entirely non-ethical properties such as happiness or desirability

• We have empirical knowledge of moral truths

1) If I believe that goodness definitely exists in the world, and that this must be proof of the existence of God – am I an objective Moral Realist?

2) Moreover, do I fall under the bracket of ethical naturalism or ethical non-naturalism?