Key Terms
Fact-value distinction
The difference between what IS (facts) and what OUGHT to be (values).
Descriptive claims
Describe how the world IS. No judgment.
Evaluative claims
Describe how the world OUGHT to be. Express judgment.
Example
Pursuing a goal based on a false picture of what it involves may feel satisfying in the short term but does not contribu
Intrinsic value
Valuable for its own sake. An end in itself.
Extrinsic value
Valuable as a means to something else.
Fundamentality
Is there one ultimate intrinsic value or many?
Monism
One fundamental intrinsic value underlies everything else.
Pluralism
Multiple fundamental intrinsic values that cannot be reduced to each other.
Incommensurability
Two or more goods have no shared standard of evaluation.
Incommensurability supports pluralism
If some values cannot be compared on the same scale, there cannot be just one intrinsic value that ranks everything.
Relativism goes further
It says no culture can judge another's values.
Metaethics
Examines the foundations and assumptions of moral beliefs. Does not tell you what is right or wrong; asks what it even m
Ontology
The study of being; what makes something what it is. Ontology of value: what kind of thing IS a value?
Realism
Moral values have an objective basis in reality. Moral reasoning requires an objective framework to discover what is tru