Table Of ContentMetaethics
Metaethics: A Contemporary Introduction provides a solid foundation in meta-
ethics 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 for
further discussion, and with annotated suggestions for further reading.
Mark van Roojen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska–
Lincoln. He works primarily in ethics and metaethics but remains interested
in the rest of philosophy. His most widely read papers are on moral rationalism,
expressivism, moral psychology, and the semantics of moral terms.
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Metaethics
A Contemporary Introduction
Mark van Roojen
First published 2015
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
The right of Mark van Roojen to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Van Roojen, Mark Steven.
Metaethics : a contemporary introduction /
Mark van Roojen. — 1 [edition].
pages cm. — (Routledge contemporary introductions to
philosophy)
1. Metaethics. I. Title.
BJ1012.V36 2015
170'.42—dc23
2014046808
ISBN: 978-0-415-89441-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-89442-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-69705-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Garamond Pro and Gill Sans
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For my metaethics teachers, Gil, Michael, Jamie, and Mark, and for Jenny and Joe,
who always come through when needed
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Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
1 A Brief Introduction 1
1.1. What Metaethics Is 1
1.2. The Plan of Approach to the Topic 3
1.3. Charting the Territory 4
1.4. Why Do Metaethics? 5
1.5. Some Cautions and Encouragement 7
2 A Subject Matter for Ethics? 9
2.1. A Simple Minimally Realist View 10
2.2. Disagreement According to Minimal Realism 17
2.3. Disruptive Disagreement and Disruptive Doubt 18
2.4. Mackie’s Argument From Disagreement 19
2.5. The Open Question Argument 23
2.6. Speaker Relativism 31
2.7. Hare-Style Translation Arguments 31
2.8. Concluding Summary 33
Questions 34
Reading 35
3 Moral Epistemology and the Empirical Underdetermination
of Ethical Theory 37
3.1. Empirical Underdetermination 37
3.2. Coherence as the Ultimate Criterion? 40
3.3. Reductive Naturalism 43
3.4. Supervenience 44
3.5. Intuitionism 46
3.6. Does Evolution Undermine Intuitive Knowledge? 48
3.7. Skepticism About the Synthetic A Priori 49
3.8. Inference to the Best Explanation 50
Questions 52
Reading 53
