Introduction

About the lecture

In this module, we provide an introduction to metaethics itself, focusing in particular on: (i) the difference between ethics and metaethics; (ii) some of the key questions that metaethics poses – what are moral properties? do they really exist? what state of mind is one in when one makes a moral statement? how does one know that something is wrong? if moral properties don’t exist, what does it mean when we say ‘murder is wrong’?; (iii) an introduction to the distinction between moral realism and moral anti-realism (do moral properties exist?); and (iv) an introduction to the distinction between cognitivism and non-cognitivism (are ethical statements truth-apt?).

About the lecturer

Iain Law is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Birmingham. His main interests are in meta-ethics, applied ethics and ethical theory, and he is currently working on papers in moral theory, moral psychology, the philosophy of medicine and applied ethics.