Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T19:02:59.707Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Series:   Elements in Ethics

Ethical Subjectivism and Expressivism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2020

Neil Sinclair
Neil Sinclair
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham

Summary

Ethical subjectivists hold that moral judgements are descriptions of our attitudes. Expressivists hold that they are expressions of our attitudes. These views cook with the same ingredients – the natural world, and our reactions to it – and have similar attractions. This Element assesses each of them by considering whether they can accommodate three central features of moral practice: the practicality of moral judgements, the phenomenon of moral disagreement, and the mind-independence of some moral truths. In the process, several different versions of subjectivism are distinguished (simple, communal, idealising, and normative) and key expressivist notions such as 'moral attitudes' and 'expression' are examined. Different meanings of 'subjective' and 'relative' are examined and it is considered whether subjectivism and expressivism make ethics 'subjective' or 'relative' in each of these senses.
Get access

Keywords

ethicssubjectivismrelativismexpressivismmoral disagreement
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Ethics
Online ISBN: 9781108581134
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 10 September 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alston, W. 2000. Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Anscombe, G.E.M. 1957. Intention. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ayer, A.J. 1936. Language, Truth and Logic. London: Gollancz. (Page references to Penguin 1936/1990 edition.)Google Scholar
Barker, S. 2006. ‘Truth and the Expressing in Expressivism’ in Metaethics after Moore, eds. Horgan, T and Timmons, M. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 299–318.Google Scholar
Björnsson, G. and McPherson, T. 2014. ‘Moral Attitudes for Non-cognitivists: Solving the Specification Problem’ Mind 123(489): 1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackburn, S. 1984. Spreading the Word. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Blackburn, S. 1993a. ‘Circles, Finks, Smells and Biconditionals’ in Tomberlin, J, ed., Philosophical Perspectives, Volume 7: Language and Logic. Atascadero, CA: Ridgeview. 259–81.Google Scholar
Blackburn, S. 1993b. Essays in Quasi-Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackburn, S. 1998. Ruling Passions. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackburn, S. 2001. ‘Reply.’ Philosophical Books 42(1): 27–32.Google Scholar
Brink, D. 1989. Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brower, B. 1993. ‘Dispositional Ethical Realism’ Ethics 103(2): 221–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camp, E. 2018. ‘Metaethical Expressivism’ in McPherson, T and Plunkett, D, eds, The Routledge Handbook of Metaethics. New York: Routledge. 87–101.Google Scholar
Chrisman, M. 2012. ‘On the Meaning of “Ought”’ in Oxford Studies in Metaethics, vol. 7, ed. Shafer-Landau, R. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 304–32.Google Scholar
Cuneo, T. 2006. ‘Saying What We Mean: An Argument against Expressivism’ Oxford Studies in Metaethics 1: 35–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuneo, T. 2014. Speech and Morality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dancy, J. 1993. Moral Reasons. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dreier, J. 1990. ‘Internalism and Speaker Relativism’ Ethics 101(1): 6–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreier, J. 2009. ‘Relativism (and Expressivism) and the Problem of Disagreement’ Philosophical Perspectives 23(1): 79–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enoch, D. 2005. ‘Why Idealize?’ Ethics 115(4): 757–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enoch, D. 2011. Taking Morality Seriously. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Firth, R. 1952. ‘Ethical Absolutism and the Ideal Observer’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 12(3): 317–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FitzPatrick, W. 2019. ‘Open Question Arguments and the Irreducibility of Ethical Normativity’ in Sinclair 2019: 138–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbard, A. 1990. Wise Choices, Apt Feelings. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbard, A. 2003. Thinking How to Live. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Harman, G. 1975. ‘Moral Relativism Defended’ Philosophical Review 85(1): 3–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horgan, T. and Timmons, M. 2006. ‘Cognitivist Expressivism’ in Horgan, T and Timmons, M, eds, Metaethics After Moore. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 255–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, M. 1989. ‘Dispositional Theories of Value’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 63: 139–74.Google Scholar
Kirchin, S. 2012. Metaethics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Köhler, S. 2012. ‘Expressivism, Subjectivism and Moral Disagreement’ Thought 1(1): 71–8.Google Scholar
Laurence, S. 1996. ‘A Chomskian Alternative to Convention-Based Semantics’ Mind 105(418): 269–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenman, J. 2003. ‘Disciplined Syntacticism and Moral Expressivism’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 66(1): 32–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. 1988. ‘Desire As Belief’ Mind 97(387): 323–32.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 1989. ‘Dispositional Theories of Value’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 63: 113–37.Google Scholar
Loeb, D. 2007. ‘The Argument from Moral Experience’ Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 10: 469–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mameli, M. 2013. ‘Meat Made us Moral: A Hypothesis on the Nature and Evolution of Moral Judgement’ Biology and Philosophy 28(6): 903–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDowell, J. 1978. ‘Are Moral Requirements Hypothetical Imperatives?’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 52: 13–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDowell, J. 1985. ‘Values and Secondary Properties’ in Honderich, T, ed., Morality and Objectivity. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 110–29.Google Scholar
Miller, A. 2003. An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Milo, R. 1995. ‘Contractarian Constructivism’ Journal of Philosophy 92(4): 181–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, G.E. 1903. Principia Ethica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, G.E. 1912. Ethics. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ogden, C.K. and Richards, I.A. 1923. The Meaning of Meaning. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.Google Scholar
Olson, J. 2010. ‘The Freshman Objection to Expressivism and What to Make of It’ Ratio 23(1): 87–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papineau, D. 1993. Philosophical Naturalism. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Plunkett, D., and Sundell, T. 2013. ‘Disagreement and the Semantics of Normative and Evaluative Terms’ Philosophers’ Imprint 13(23): 1–37.Google Scholar
Prinz, J. 2006. ‘The Emotional Basis of Moral Judgments’ Philosophical Explorations 9(1): 29–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Railton, P. 1986. ‘Moral Realism’ Philosophical Review 95(2): 163–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridge, M. 2013. ‘Disagreement’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 86(1): 41–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridge, M. 2014. Impassioned Belief. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schroeder, M. 2007. Slaves of the Passions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schroeder, M. 2008. Being For: Evaluating the Semantic Program of Expressivism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schroeder, M. 2010. Noncognitivism in Ethics. Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schroeder, M. 2014. ‘Does Expressivism Have Subjectivist Consequences?’ Philosophical Perspectives 28(1): 278–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shafer-Landau, R. 2003. Moral Realism: A Defense. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, N. 2007. ‘Expressivism and the Practicality of Moral Convictions’ Journal of Value Inquiry 41(2–4): 201–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, N. 2008. ‘Free Thinking for Expressivists’ Philosophical Papers 37(2): 263–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, N. 2011. ‘Moral Expressivism and Sentential Negation’ Philosophical Studies 152(3): 385–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, N. 2012. ‘Moral Realism, Face-Values and Presumptions’, Analytic Philosophy 53(2): 158–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, N. ed. 2019. The Naturalistic Fallacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sinclair, N. 2021. Practical Expressivism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. 1989. ‘Dispositional Theories of Value’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 63: 89–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. 1994. The Moral Problem. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Snare, F. 1975. ‘The Argument from Motivation’ Mind 84: 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, C.L. 1944. Ethics and Language. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 1–9.Google Scholar
Stevenson, C.L. 1948. ‘The Nature of Ethical Disagreement’ reprinted in Stevenson 1963.Google Scholar
Stevenson, C.L. 1963. Facts and Values. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Stocker, M. 1979. ‘Desiring the Bad: An Essay in Moral Psychology’ Journal of Philosophy 76: 738–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stojanovic, I. 2018. ‘Metaethical Relativism’ in McPherson, T and Plunkett, D, eds, The Routledge Handbook of Metaethics. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Suikkanen, J. 2009. ‘The Subjectivist Consequences of Expressivism’ Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 90(3): 364–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Timmons, M. 1999. Morality Without Foundations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tormey, A. 1971. The Concept of Expression. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tresan, J. 2006. ‘De Dicto Internalist Cognitivism’ Noûs 40(1):143–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Roojen, M. 2015. Metaethics: A Contemporary Introduction. London: Routledge. 117–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Roojen, M. 2019. ‘Motivation, Recommendation, Non-cognitivism and the Naturalistic Fallacy’ in Sinclair 2019.Google Scholar
Warenski, L. 2014. ‘Defending Moral Mind-Independence: The Expressivist’s Precarious Turn’ Philosophia 42: 861–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westermarck, E. 1932. Ethical Relativity. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Wiggins, D. 1987. ‘A Sensible Subjectivism?’ in Needs, Values, and Truth. Oxford: Blackwell. 185–215.Google Scholar
Wright, C. 1992. Truth and Objectivity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, C. 1988. ‘Moral Values, Projection, and Secondary Qualities’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 63(1): 1–26.Google Scholar
Zangwill, N. 1994. ‘Moral Mind-Independence’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy 72: 205–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Ethical Subjectivism and Expressivism
  • Neil Sinclair, University of Nottingham
  • Online ISBN: 9781108581134
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Ethical Subjectivism and Expressivism
  • Neil Sinclair, University of Nottingham
  • Online ISBN: 9781108581134
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Ethical Subjectivism and Expressivism
  • Neil Sinclair, University of Nottingham
  • Online ISBN: 9781108581134
Available formats
×