This document includes OCR A Level Religious Studies - META- ETHICS Essay. This should cover all the bullet points for the OCR RS spec. These are all/examples of all the essays that could potentially come up. Some of the essays include summaries. I am an A* student and these essays are all at an A-...
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Good is best described by Naturalism. [40]
Naturalism is an absolutist meta ethical theory that holds that morals are fixed absolute in the
universe and they can consequently be recognised or observed. Naturalists such as F.G
Bradley and Thomas Aquinas believe that morals can be perceived in the world the same way
that other features of the world are identified. Through critical analysis it will become clear that
good is not best described by naturalism.
Good is not best described by naturalism because good does not have an objective basis.
F.H Bradley argues that we can know what is good by observing one’s place in society. Moral
Perspective is determined from self-realisation and observing one’s position in society.
Bradley is wrong because society can be different and subjective so basing any ethical ideas on
one’s place in society gives no clarity at all on what ‘good’ means. A ‘good’ parent can be seen
in different ways. The beating of a child who has stolen sweets may be seen as ‘good’ discipline
and the end result may be that the child will never steal, which is good for society. However
beating a child may be damaging to the child’s self-esteem and could cause serious
psychological problems, which could manifest in further abuse later in life. Therefore the beating
of a child can be seen as good or bad and Bradley has failed to render ethical language
cognitive. The claim that ‘Beating your child is wrong’ must be just opinion or emotional reaction,
which supports AJ Ayer’s claim that ethical language is meaningless when it comes to
philosophical discourse. Through observation of our position within society we are unable to
arrive at a meaningful statement and one that can be verified. ‘Beating your child is wrong is not
synthetically nor statistically verifiable.Rather when we say something is bad there is no kind of
fact or knowledge at all but simply utterances that are relative emotive responses in the same
category. If I say something is bad I have a warm feeling about that thing. Therefore, it is clear
that good is not best described by naturalism but rather through emotivism.Therefore, it is clear
that good is not best described by naturalism because it is clear that it has no objective factual
basis.
Good is not best described by naturalism because it is clear that we cannot derive good from
our observations of nature. Ethical naturalism is a meta-ethical doctrine, which maintains that
moral truths can be empirically discovered via observation of the world. Naturalism believes
moral statements to be cognitive as they can be judged to be true or false using a posteriori
knowledge. Thomas Aquinas, a theological naturalist, argued that goodness Is linked to the will
of God as seen in nature. God defined morality; murder is wrong because God commands
against murder. God provides evidence which we can use to judge what is good and what is
bad. For example, we empirically verify the idea that Ted Bundy was an evil man because his
actions went against natural law in the form of the primary precepts ‘preservation of life’ and
‘living in society’. His actions also went against the divine law wherein the 10 commandments It
is stated ‘thou shalt not kill’. Aquinas argues we employ our ratio to examine the evidence to
come to a verified conclusion on ethical matters. Yet as suggested by David Hume, reason is
impotent in matters of morality and that morality is derived from sentiment. Hume’s law(is-ought
problem) contends absolute wrongness or rightness cannot be deduced from experience or
observation because there are no metaphysical truths or supernatural properties, there is no
objective meaning. When we see something as being wrong or right this understanding comes
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