Charles L. Stevenson
Charles Leslie Stevenson (born June 27, 1908 Cincinnati , Ohio , † 1979 ) was an American philosopher . He mainly worked in the fields of ethics and aesthetics .
Life
Stevenson first studied English literature at Yale University , then philosophy at Cambridge University with GE Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein (1930–33), later at Harvard University (1933–35). He received his doctorate from Harvard in 1935, where he worked as a lecturer until 1939 . 1939-46 he was Assistant Professor at Yale, 1946-77 Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor . In 1963 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .
Teaching
Stevenson is mainly known for his metaethical thesis that moral value judgments have no descriptive character ( non-descriptivism ), but rather served the sole purpose of evoking emotions in order to influence or convince others. He is thus - alongside Alfred Jules Ayer - one of the leading representatives of emotivism .
Stevenson's metaethical theses are based on his theory of meaning , which is based on the work of Charles Kay Ogden and IA Richards . According to this theory, language only serves to psychologically influence the listener, in that certain psychological reactions are to be evoked in him by stimuli.
Selected Works
- Ethics and Language , New Haven Conn., London 1944, ISBN 0-300-00975-5 .
- Facts and Values. Studies in Ethical Analysis , New Haven Conn., 1963, ISBN 0-8371-8212-3 .
literature
- Michael Quante : Introduction to General Ethics. 4th edition. Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2011, ISBN 978-3-534-24595-6 , p. 50 f. (brief description and criticism of his noncognitivism)
Web links
- Daniel R. Boisvert: Charles Leslie Stevenson. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
See also
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Stevenson, Charles L. |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Stevenson, Charles Leslie |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American philosopher |
DATE OF BIRTH | June 27, 1908 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Cincinnati , Ohio |
DATE OF DEATH | 1979 |