Michael Huemer gives two taxonomies of metaethical views in section 1.4 of his book Ethical Intuitionism:
As the preceding section suggests, metaethical theories are traditionally
divided first into realist and anti-realist views, and then into two forms of
realism and three forms of anti-realism:
This is not the most illuminating way of classifying positions. It implies
that the most fundamental division in metaethics is between realists and
anti-realists over the question of objectivity. The dispute between
naturalism and intuitionism is then seen as relatively minor, with the
naturalists being much closer to the intuitionists than they are, say, to the
subjectivists. That isn’t how I see things. As I see it, the most fundamental
division in metaethics is between the intuitionists, on the one hand, and
everyone else, on the other. I would classify the positions as follows:
I’m planning to make an edit to the piece addressing the common alternate way of defining realism, such that it essentially is synonymous with objectivism. These classification schemes are really useful for me to think about when working on that, so thanks! As you can see in the first one, anti-realism is encompassing subjectivism—potentially confusing to someone who has read my piece, because I specifically classified subjectivism as a realist position! The issue is coming from the fact that your first diagram treats “realism” as meaning “moral claims are truth-apt, some are true, and the truth values of them are mind-independent” (which is basically the same as objectivism) whereas I’ve defined it simply as “moral claims are truth-apt and some of them are true.” Both definitions are commonly acceptable I believe, and the reason I’ve chosen the definition I did is because I want an overarching distinction between believing in mind-dependent moral truths and mind-independent moral truths. But the other way of doing things is common enough that it needs to be addressed in the piece so as to avoid confusion.
In the first categorization scheme, I’m also not exactly sure what nihilism is referring to. Do you know? Is it just referring to Error Theory (and maybe incoherentism)? Usually non-cognitivism would fall within nihilism, no? I actually don’t think either of these diagrams place Nihilism correctly.
That second diagram is pretty crazy. I don’t like it haha. I’m not super well acquainted with the monism/dualism distinction, but in the common conception don’t they both generally assume that morality is real, at least in some semi-robust sense? (And again, why the distinction between Nihilism and Non-Cognitivism? What is Nihilism referring to?)
Thanks so much for sharing! Super useful stuff for me to think about.
In the first categorization scheme, I’m also not exactly sure what nihilism is referring to. Do you know? Is it just referring to Error Theory (and maybe incoherentism)?
Yes, Huemer writes: “Nihilism (a.k.a. ‘the error theory’) holds that evaluative statements are generally false.”
Usually non-cognitivism would fall within nihilism, no?
I’m not sure how the term “nihilism” is typically used in philosophical writing, but if we take nihilism=error theory then it looks like non-cognitivism wouldn’t fall within nihilism (just like non-cognitivism doesn’t fall within error theory in your flowchart).
I actually don’t think either of these diagrams place Nihilism correctly.
For the first diagram, Huemer writes “if we say ‘good’ purports to refer to a property, some things have that property, and the property does not depend on observers, then we have moral realism.” So for Huemer, nihilism fails the middle condition, so is classified as anti-realist. For the second diagram, see the quote below about dualism vs monism.
I’m not super well acquainted with the monism/dualism distinction, but in the common conception don’t they both generally assume that morality is real, at least in some semi-robust sense?
Huemer writes:
Here, dualism is the idea that there are two fundamentally different kinds of facts (or properties) in the world: evaluative facts (properties) and non-evaluative facts (properties). Only the intuitionists embrace this.
Everyone else is a monist: they say there is only one fundamental kind of fact in the world, and it is the non-evaluative kind; there aren’t any value facts over and above the other facts. This implies that either there are no value facts at all (eliminativism), or value facts are entirely explicable in terms of non-evaluative facts (reductionism).
Michael Huemer gives two taxonomies of metaethical views in section 1.4 of his book Ethical Intuitionism:
I’m planning to make an edit to the piece addressing the common alternate way of defining realism, such that it essentially is synonymous with objectivism. These classification schemes are really useful for me to think about when working on that, so thanks! As you can see in the first one, anti-realism is encompassing subjectivism—potentially confusing to someone who has read my piece, because I specifically classified subjectivism as a realist position! The issue is coming from the fact that your first diagram treats “realism” as meaning “moral claims are truth-apt, some are true, and the truth values of them are mind-independent” (which is basically the same as objectivism) whereas I’ve defined it simply as “moral claims are truth-apt and some of them are true.” Both definitions are commonly acceptable I believe, and the reason I’ve chosen the definition I did is because I want an overarching distinction between believing in mind-dependent moral truths and mind-independent moral truths. But the other way of doing things is common enough that it needs to be addressed in the piece so as to avoid confusion.
In the first categorization scheme, I’m also not exactly sure what nihilism is referring to. Do you know? Is it just referring to Error Theory (and maybe incoherentism)? Usually non-cognitivism would fall within nihilism, no? I actually don’t think either of these diagrams place Nihilism correctly.
That second diagram is pretty crazy. I don’t like it haha. I’m not super well acquainted with the monism/dualism distinction, but in the common conception don’t they both generally assume that morality is real, at least in some semi-robust sense? (And again, why the distinction between Nihilism and Non-Cognitivism? What is Nihilism referring to?)
Thanks so much for sharing! Super useful stuff for me to think about.
Yes, Huemer writes: “Nihilism (a.k.a. ‘the error theory’) holds that evaluative statements are generally false.”
I’m not sure how the term “nihilism” is typically used in philosophical writing, but if we take nihilism=error theory then it looks like non-cognitivism wouldn’t fall within nihilism (just like non-cognitivism doesn’t fall within error theory in your flowchart).
For the first diagram, Huemer writes “if we say ‘good’ purports to refer to a property, some things have that property, and the property does not depend on observers, then we have moral realism.” So for Huemer, nihilism fails the middle condition, so is classified as anti-realist. For the second diagram, see the quote below about dualism vs monism.
Huemer writes: