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All 8 Flashcards — Emotivism
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Question
Emotivism?
Answer
The view that moral sentences don't state facts — they express the speaker's feelings and try to influence others.
Question
What does 'stealing is wrong' really do?
Answer
Expresses disapproval ('stealing — boo!') and nudges the listener to feel the same; it adds no factual content.
Question
Do moral claims have a truth-value?
Answer
No — they state no fact, so there's nothing there to be true or false.
Question
Express vs report a feeling?
Answer
Emotivism says a moral sentence EXPRESSES a feeling (like a wince), not REPORTS it ('I dislike stealing' would be a checkable fact).
Question
How does emotivism follow from the test?
Answer
Once the facts of an act are listed, no 'wrongness' fact remains to check — so moral talk can't be factual.
Question
Does emotivism make morality unimportant?
Answer
No — our attitudes drive how we live; Ayer's narrower claim is only that moral talk has no factual content.
Question
Noncognitivism (Go further)?
Answer
The wider view that value-talk isn't in the business of stating knowable facts; emotivism is one version.
Question
The disagreement problem (Go further)?
Answer
If I say 'boo!' and you 'hooray!', do we even disagree, or just feel differently? Emotivism struggles to keep moral 'mistakes'.
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Topic 10.1 hub
Language, Truth and Logic — Ayer
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