ABSTRACT

Metaethics: A Contemporary Introduction provides a solid foundation in metaethics for advanced undergraduates by introducing a series of puzzles that most metaethical theories address. These puzzles involve moral disagreement, reference, moral epistemology, metaphysics, and moral psychology. From there, author Mark van Roojen discusses the many positions in metaethics that people will take in reaction to these puzzles. Van Roojen asks several essential questions of his readers, namely: What is metaethics? Why study it? How does one discuss metaethics, given its inherently controversial nature? Each chapter closes with questions, both for reading comprehension and further discussion, and annotated suggestions for further reading.

chapter 1|8 pages

A Brief Introduction

chapter 2|28 pages

A Subject Matter for Ethics?

chapter 5|24 pages

Error Theory

chapter 6|17 pages

Simple Subjectivism

chapter 7|25 pages

The Cognitivist Heirs of Simple Subjectivism

Ideal Observers and Ideal Agents

chapter 9|25 pages

Fictionalism

chapter 10|9 pages

Externalist Backlash

chapter 11|27 pages

Scientific Naturalism I

Cornell Realism

chapter 12|16 pages

Scientific Naturalism II

Moral Functionalism and Network Analyses

chapter 13|26 pages

Nonnaturalism and Antireductionism

chapter 14|14 pages

Odds, Ends, and Morals