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Philosophy vocabulary · Ethics and Moral Philosophy

Metaethics

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

/ˌmetəˈeθɪks/nounAdvanced term

In philosophy, metaethics means: The branch of ethics that asks what moral claims mean, whether they can be true or false and how we could know them, rather than which actions are right.

In Turkish: metaetik, üst etik

How it is used

Major positions include moral realism, anti-realism, expressivism and error theory. G. E. Moore's Principia Ethica (1903) is often seen as its modern starting point. Also spelled meta-ethics, especially in British texts.

Example sentences

  1. In metaethics we ask whether 'cruelty is wrong' states a fact or expresses a feeling.

  2. Mackie's error theory is one of the most debated positions in metaethics.

Common collocations

  • contemporary metaethics
  • metaethical realism
  • metaethical question
  • normative ethics and metaethics
  • moral realismThe metaethical view that there are objective moral facts, which hold independently of what any person or culture believes about them.
  • relativismThe view that truth, knowledge or moral rightness is not absolute but depends on a culture, a person or a framework.
  • normativeConcerned with how things ought to be, or with what is good, right or reasonable, rather than with describing how things actually are.
  • ethicsThe branch of philosophy that studies right and wrong, good and bad, and how we ought to live and treat one another.

More terms: Ethics and Moral Philosophy

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