Analytical ethics
Analytical ethics refers to moral philosophy in the context of analytical philosophy . Large parts of analytical philosophy at the beginning of the 20th century were naturalistic , empirical and rationalistic ; accordingly, utilitarian or even anti-realist moral theories were often developed here. This has changed completely today, the various analytical moral theorists are working out and defending a wide variety of approaches, whereby all classical positions of ethics are still being discussed. Since the international debate on moral-philosophical issues has been largely contested for several decades by analytically trained theorists, but otherwise there is no consensus on how to distinguish it from continental philosophy , moral philosophy and "analytical ethics" now largely coincide.
The classics of analytical ethics include:
- all classic utilitarians
- Alfred Jules Ayer , who defended a metaethical emotivism: moral propositions are not verifiable, so no factual assertions; they only express feelings; "You should not kill!" only expresses an emotional displeasure
- John Leslie Mackie , who argued against the objectivity of ethics and in favor of an error theory of morals
For an overview of current moral-philosophical concepts cf. the main articles morality and ethics .
Remarks
- ↑ See Graham MacDonald: Alfred Jules Ayer: Ethics. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
See also
Introductory literature
- Dieter Birnbacher : Analytical introduction to ethics ; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2003.
- Dieter Birnbacher and Norbert Hoerster (eds.): Texts on Ethics , Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co. 1997.
- William K. Frankena : Analytical Ethics. An introduction . 5th edition Munich: dtv, 1994.
- Franz von Kutschera : Foundations of Ethics Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2. A. 1999.
- Georg Meggle and Günther Grewendorf (eds.): Language and Ethics, Frankfurt a. M., Suhrkamp (stw 91), 1974.
- John Leslie Mackie : Ethics - The Invention of the Morally Right and Wrong , Stuttgart: Reclam 1983.
- Julian Nida-Rümelin and Thomas Schmidt: Rationality in Practical Philosophy - An Introduction; Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2000.
- Jean-Claude Wolf and Peter Schaber : Analytical Moral Philosophy . Freiburg: Alber, 1998 (Alber series practical philosophy; Vol. 54), ISBN 3-495-47497-8 .