Breakdown of Philosophy

Moral Truth   Belief in Platonic Forms : moral truth as God-independent transcendent truth, analogy with mathematical truths. Moral elitism Moral knowledge and weakness of will Moral truth as based on natural facts Open question argument Naturalistic Fallacy Moral truth as based on relational properties which provide reasons for action; the analogy with secondary properties.

Denial of Moral Truth ViewsRelativism. Distinction between descriptive and normative relativism Emotivism Prescriptivism

Moral DecisionsUtilitarianismDeontology Virtue theory

Issues the possibility of judging the abhorrent practices of other cultures/individuals the possibility of moral progress and moral mistakes; the extent to which we can value what we like.

Issues Is moral truth possible? The possibility of agreement over moral truth The extent to which such moral truths can motivate/justify action

Substance dualism Cartesian, or substance, dualism Solipsism The problem of other minds  Mind-body problem.  • Responses to these problems: arguments against the possibility of starting from one’s own case,  how we learn to self-ascribe and whether there  could be a necessarily private language (such as  a language describing private mental states); the  argument from analogy and inference to the best  explanation; accounts of the relationship between  mind and body.

Moral Philosophy

Philosophy of Mind