I think, just like politics, this site should avoid the topic of ethics as much as possible. Most of the “science” of ethics is just post-Christian nonsense. Seriously, read Nietzsche. I don’t trust any of this talk about ethics by someone who hasn’t read, and understood, Nietzsche.
I reject your appeal to authority or sophistication. I also suggest you are confused about what discussion of metaethics entails.
The ‘meta’ implies that the discussions of ethics can be separated entirely from normative moralizing and be engaged with as a purely epistemic challenge. This is not to say that people don’t throw their own moralizing into the conversation incessantly but that is a mix of confusion and bias on the part of the individual and not intrinsic to the subject.
It is useful to be able to describe precisely what people mean when they make ethical judgments and even what the associated words mean and how they relate to intuitions.
I reject your appeal to authority or sophistication. I also suggest you are confused about what discussion of metaethics entails.
The ‘meta’ implies that the discussions of ethics can be separated entirely from normative moralizing and be engaged with as a purely epistemic challenge. This is not to say that people don’t throw their own moralizing into the conversation incessantly but that is a mix of confusion and bias on the part of the individual and not intrinsic to the subject.
It is useful to be able to describe precisely what people mean when they make ethical judgments and even what the associated words mean and how they relate to intuitions.
If the meta in metaethics meant that, I’d say it’s impossible, for roughly these reasons.
These links don’t work.
Thanks; fixed. Back to school for me on mouseover text.