Moral and Moorean Incoherencies

It has been argued that moral assertions involve the possession, on the part of the speaker, of appropriate non-cognitive attitudes. Thus, uttering ‘murder is wrong’ invites an inference that the speaker disapproves of murder. In this paper, we present the result of 4 empirical studies concerning th...

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Main Authors: Andres Soria Ruiz, Nils Franzén
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Michigan Publishing 2023-11-01
Series:Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy
Online Access:https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/4665/
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author Andres Soria Ruiz
Nils Franzén
author_facet Andres Soria Ruiz
Nils Franzén
author_sort Andres Soria Ruiz
collection DOAJ
description It has been argued that moral assertions involve the possession, on the part of the speaker, of appropriate non-cognitive attitudes. Thus, uttering ‘murder is wrong’ invites an inference that the speaker disapproves of murder. In this paper, we present the result of 4 empirical studies concerning this phenomenon. We assess the acceptability of constructions in which that inference is explicitly canceled, such as ‘murder is wrong but I don’t disapprove of it’; and we compare them to similar constructions involving ‘think’ instead of ‘disapprove’—that is, Moore paradoxes (‘murder is wrong but I don’t think that it is wrong’). Our results indicate that the former type of constructions are largely infelicitous, although not as infelicitous as their Moorean counterparts.
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spelling doaj-art-cb75d128bed64efb8b0972e5d59f80012025-08-20T02:43:43ZengMichigan PublishingErgo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy2330-40142023-11-0110010.3998/ergo.4665Moral and Moorean IncoherenciesAndres Soria Ruiz0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4592-9783Nils Franzén1Philosophy, University of BarcelonaUmeå UniversityIt has been argued that moral assertions involve the possession, on the part of the speaker, of appropriate non-cognitive attitudes. Thus, uttering ‘murder is wrong’ invites an inference that the speaker disapproves of murder. In this paper, we present the result of 4 empirical studies concerning this phenomenon. We assess the acceptability of constructions in which that inference is explicitly canceled, such as ‘murder is wrong but I don’t disapprove of it’; and we compare them to similar constructions involving ‘think’ instead of ‘disapprove’—that is, Moore paradoxes (‘murder is wrong but I don’t think that it is wrong’). Our results indicate that the former type of constructions are largely infelicitous, although not as infelicitous as their Moorean counterparts.https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/4665/
spellingShingle Andres Soria Ruiz
Nils Franzén
Moral and Moorean Incoherencies
Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy
title Moral and Moorean Incoherencies
title_full Moral and Moorean Incoherencies
title_fullStr Moral and Moorean Incoherencies
title_full_unstemmed Moral and Moorean Incoherencies
title_short Moral and Moorean Incoherencies
title_sort moral and moorean incoherencies
url https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/4665/
work_keys_str_mv AT andressoriaruiz moralandmooreanincoherencies
AT nilsfranzen moralandmooreanincoherencies