WJEC/Eduqas RS for A2/Yr2: Religion and Ethics (DRAFT)

WJEC / Eduqas Religious Studies for A Level Year 2 and A2 Religion and Ethics

Empiricism, cognitivism and realism are all inter-related; however, as with realism, that inter-relationship is much debated within epistemology and different philosophers take different positions on the subtleties of what this inter-relationship actually is. This is where it gets really complex but fortunately, again, it is not our concern. Suffice to say that an empirical, cognitivist and realist approach is one that recognises that the world around us can provide answers to our philosophical questions and that we do not need to go beyond the realm of the senses for an explanation. In short, this position described above is the position of philosophical Naturalism. What, then, of ethical debate about the nature of good, bad, right or wrong? What does this all mean for ethics? Naturalism and analysis of the natural world From this foundation of philosophical Naturalism it is proposed that ethical knowledge can be reduced to, and explained through, empirical means. Ethical Naturalism , then, argues that we can know whether something is good, bad, right or wrong by deference to the world around, an experience of which imparts this ethical knowledge. Key quote According to the naturalist, there are no Platonic forms, Cartesian mental substances, Kantian noumena, or any other agents, powers, or entities that do not (in some broad sense) belong to nature. (Jacobs) This means that ethical Naturalism proposes: That moral terms can be understood by analysing the natural world (empirical) In other words, ethical language can be understood by referring to, and closely analysing, what we experience from the natural world around us. For example, we all understand that to experience the kindness of another is a ‘good’ experience and that to experience cruelty from another is a ‘bad’ experience. That ethical statements are cognitivist and can be verified or falsified (cognitivist) Taken further, this then means that our experiences have meaning because we can verify, from our experiences, that kind acts are ‘good’ and cruel acts are ‘bad’ due to the happiness or suffering that these experiences produce. We can all verify this and it means the same for everyone. That verified moral statements are objective truths and universal If the ethical descriptions and statements about our world have meaning for everyone then it also follows that they are objective truths and universal. If the world around us is objective or real, that is it exists independently of us, then it can be used to establish knowledge and truth. We can then discuss ethics meaningfully and establish certain propositions about good and bad ethical behaviour, for example that kindness is good, because our experience of the world verifies this. That objective features of the world make propositions true or false (moral realism) If these experiences are mind-independent, uniform and universal then this also means that the statements ‘kindness is an ethically good act’ and ‘cruelty is an ethically bad act’ are true because these experiences are grounded in the objective features of the world around us. That is, we can actually see how kindness works. From this, we all can agree that kindness is good because the experiences in the world around us establish that this is true.

Key quotes According to moral realists,

statements about what actions are morally required or permissible and statements about what dispositions or character traits are morally virtuous or vicious (and so on) are not mere expressions of subjective preferences but are objectively true or false according as they correspond with the facts of morality – just as historical or geographic statements are true or false according as they fit the historical or geographic facts. (Hale, Encyclopaedia Britannica) Naturalism was supposed to explain away ethics altogether by associating ethical concepts such as goodness or duty with non-ethical concepts such as pleasure or utility or the desire that society should be preserved. (Warnock)

DRAFT

1.3 What does the term ‘proposition’ mean?

1.4 Which group of philosophers were associated with the Vienna Circle?

Key term Ethical Naturalism: the view that ethical propositions can be understood by analysing the natural world

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