Naturalism
- Belief that moral knowledge can be true as we can prove it through empirical evidence. It is a form of cognitivism.
- We can say something is good if it is provable.
- A good example we can use to describe is that just like the statement ‘David Cameron is the Prime Minister of the UK’ can be verified or falsifies so can ‘killing is wrong’ on the bases of the hurt and pain it causes.
Strengths
- It is a good attempt at making morality absolute like science.
- It supports our current legal system.
Criticisms
- Moore said that you cannot derive an ought (a value) from an is (a fact) which is what naturalism does by saying ethical and non-ethical statements can verified or falsified.
- Moore also puts forward the Open Question Argument. Moore attempts to define good and said we can’t because for example if we say good is pleasure than this means anything I find pleasurable is good even if it is hurting people. This has huge problems and kills the Naturalism argument.
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