Welcome Back…

Information of things past…• Well rested and restored I hope• Some of the best AS results ever!!!• On average, a grade above your target• 77% A-B (including 9 As)• 85% A-C• 100% A-D• Re-sits, questions, discussions; see me at the end of lesson

• Very, very pleased…

Information of things present…

• Folders• Checklists• Assessment Sheets• Front Sheets• New Textbooks…

• Expectations - Reading and notes (scholars, quotes, key terms etc), classroom engagement (self-assessed)

Information of things to come…

• Meta-ethics, virtue ethics, free will, conscience, sexual ethics, business ethics, environmental ethics

• One 35 mark essay not split (includes understanding, knowledge and evaluation)

“The riches of this world are perishable and the only constants are virtue and the happiness of love.” Voltaire

One of my favourite quotes

“The riches…

…of this world…

…are perishable…

…and the only constants…

…are virtue…

…and the happiness of love.”

Cogs Turning Starter

• Two minutes with partner, a favourite ethics quote of yours.

• Discuss who it was by and what it was saying.

• Class share

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN???

Meta-ethics

• Learning Objectives:-• To understand what meta-ethics means and

what some of the key terms relating to it mean

• To explore an outline of the unit• To consider the meaning of ethical language

Meta-ethics

• It accuses ethics and moral philosophy of being a meaningless pursuit. In this way it is similar to existentialism. This is the only way it is similar to existentialism!

• Extension – A reading list from the library please…

Introduction

• Mainly what we have studied so far is normative ethics, that is, how do we behave?

• Meta-ethics comes from meta (beyond) ethics and is a ‘back to basics’ question of the meaning of ethical statements and language.

• Epistemology – Knowledge (origins of knowledge)

Meta-ethical Questions

• What do we mean by ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and ‘right’ and ‘wrong’?

• What do you think? What are some of the answers we have looked at so far?

• Do such concepts exist beyond human feeling?• What is this asking? Give a theory on either

side of this. • If they do, what does it mean to behave well?

Back to Basics

• Fundamental Question of meta-ethics…• What is truth? And how can we discover it?

• Divine Command Theory? Empiricism?

Empiricism

• David Hume said truth must be verified through observation and experience.

• Ethical naturalism (GE Moore) applies this to morality by asserting that the truth of ethical language eg ‘good’ ‘bad’ ‘right’ ‘wrong’ can only be known through observation and experience of nature.

Summary

• At the beginning of last year, I used the metaphor of a car mechanic working on a Ford Fiesta to describe this course. The car is morality, and you, the mechanic, must work out what is right or wrong with it. You must examine it and get it working. Yours tools are arguments.

• In threes, work out where meta-ethics might fit into this metaphor