Metaethics

Metaethical inquiry aims to address a number of interrelated semantic, metaphysical, psychological, and epistemological questions about the nature of ethics. In this course we will address the following questions: What do ethical judgments mean? Are they true or false? If they are true or false, in virtue of what? If they are true or false, can knowledge of them be had? How, or why not? If they are not true or false, what status do they have? The goal of this course is to explore the answers that have been given to these questions by the most influential writings in metaethics.