Description of moral judgments (brit.: judgements )
These are judgments about what is right and wrong, good and bad, virtuous [ˈvɜːtjʊəs] or vicious [ˈvɪʃəs]
Particular and Abstract Moral Judgments
Particular moral judgments
"The everyday sort of judgments that we make when we judge that something is good or bad, right or wrong, virtuous or vicious. When we think about something like what Pol Pot did and the genocide was morally abhorrent [əbˈhɒrənt]. Or giving to charity [ˈʧærɪti] is a good thing to do."
Abstract moral judgments
"The sort of judgments that ethical philosophers make when they say things like ‘an action is right insofar[ɪnsəʊˈfɑː] as it maximizes [ˈmæksɪmaɪzɪz] overall happiness, or one ought to always act in a way that one could will one's reason to be reasons for everyone else’."
Positive and Negative Moral Judgments
Positive moral judgments
We think that things like giving to charity are good, or taking care of your children is morally obligatory [ɒˈblɪgətəri].
Negative moral judgments
We think that things like Cain's [keɪn] killing Abel [ˈeɪbəl] out of jealousy were morally bad, were wrong. Or things like polygamy [pɒˈlɪgəmi] is morally dubious [ˈdjuːbjəs].
Empirical judgments
These are judgments that we can verify by empirical observation.
The approaches that philosophers have taken to issue of the status of morality
1. Objectivism [əbˈʤɛktɪvɪzm]. The idea that we are representing objective facts when we make moral judgments
2. Relativism [ˈrɛlətɪvɪzm]. The idea that we are describing some kind of cultural or personal relative practices when we make these judgments
3. Emotivism [ɪˈməʊtɪvɪz(ə)m]. The idea that we are expressing our emotions towards [təˈwɔːdz] the world when we make these judgments.
Are moral judgments the sort of things that can be true or false?
Empirical judgments
These judgments are the sort of things that can be true or false
Moral judgments
"Some philosophers believe that moral judgments are the sort of thing that can be true or false. Other philosophers have thought that moral judgments are not the sort of thing that can be true or false. They think that moral judgments are mere opinions or mere expressions of our emotions."
What makes moral judgments true or false?
Empirical judgments
Objective human-independent facts make these judgments true or false.
Moral judgments
?
Are moral judgments objectively true or false?
Empirical judgments
They are objectively [əbˈʤɛktɪvli] true or false
Moral judgments
There are moral judgments that are not objectively true or false. They are only true or false in relation to a culture or a person or a sensibility or something like that.
SOURCES
'Introduction to Philosophy' course (the University of Edinburgh)
https://www.coursera.org/learn/philosophy