C.L. Stevenson – Emotivism
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Starter – With your
partner, discuss and
explain the moral
statement ‘Murder is
wrong’ using
emotivist reasoning
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To explore and
understand
Stevenson’s
emotivism
To discuss how this
might differ with AJ
Ayer’s
To begin to evaluate
emotivist weaknesses
C.L. Stevenson – Emotivism
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Charles Leslie Stevenson (1908–1979) was an
American analytic philosopher, best known for his work
in ethics and aesthetics.
He was a professor at Yale University from 1939 to
1946 and at the University of Michigan from 1946 to
1977.
He studied in England with Wittgenstein and G. E.
Moore.
He presented a sophisticated defense of emotivism in
his papers "The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms"
(1937) and "Persuasive Definitions" (1938).
C.L. Stevenson – Emotivism
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In his book Ethics and Language (1944), he
developed a theory of emotive meaning;
which he used to provide a foundation for his
theory of a persuasive definition.
He advanced emotivism as a meta-ethical theory
that outlined the differences between cognitive,
scientific uses of language (used to state facts
and to give reasons, and subject to the laws of
science)
and non-cognitive uses (used to state feelings
and exercise influence).
C.L. Stevenson – Emotive Meaning
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‘The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms’ – Stevenson
(1937)
(See Dialogue article Meta – Ethics and Emotivism by
John Rafferty).
Stevenson argues that language has two main uses:
Descriptive use
Dynamic use
“I am loaded down with work.” ( informs person (s)
listening to this statement how busy I am).
C.L. Stevenson – Emotive Meaning
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“I am loaded down with work.” ( aims to convey to the
person (s) listening to this statement my misery at being
overworked, or to get them to lighten my workload).
Stevenson suggests that while moral statements may
have no factual significance they still have an emotive
meaning – the “aura of feeling which hovers about a
word.” This makes it particularly suited to a ‘dynamic’
use.
The main dynamic use of moral terms is to express
either approving or disapproving feelings of the speaker.
C.L. Stevenson – Emotive Meaning
1.
2.
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“Your son has admitted to misleading Mrs. X about the
reason several homeworks are missing from his exercise
book.”
“Your son lied about not doing his homework.”
What according to Stevenson is the difference, according
to his theory, about the two statements above?
2 more successfully expresses an attitude of disapproval
than 1.
Although Ayer and Stevenson’s Emotivist theories have
much in common, Stevenson elaborates the theory by
holding that during an ethical argument people are trying to
persuade others to approve or disapprove of e.g. of
stealing, cheating, abortion, euthanasia etc.
C.L. Stevenson – Emotive Meaning
Evaluation
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Empirical evidence suggests that using emotive
language seems to be successful in changing the
attitude of others.
N.B. Advertisers and lawyers are very able at
choosing their words for maximum impact.
But whether this is all that we want to do when we
use language in this way seems less certain.
In his article in Dialogue, Rafferty points out that
“We sometimes talk about morality as though it is
something we can reason and think about.”
C.L. Stevenson – Emotive Meaning
Evaluation
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He notes that we say sentences like:
“I know stealing is wrong”;
“He believes that the death penalty is
justifiable.”
“If morality is not grounded in facts, there
will never be any way of establishing that
child torture is objectively wrong.” (Rafferty)
C.L. Stevenson – Emotive Meaning
Evaluation
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According to emotivism, when two people
hold different moral views they are not
actually disagreeing about facts, they are
disagreeing in the emotions they express
about this issue.
But if we accept emotivism then there are
no such things as moral arguments.
C.L. Stevenson – Emotive Meaning
Evaluation
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Finally, if, according to Stevenson, all moral
discourse is trying to persuade others to share the
same attitudes as us, then how does he account
for debates and discussions that we have with
people who already share our views on e.g.
punishment or war?
As Rafferty says “What about those times when
we are thinking over what to do in our own minds
when we are alone? Are we just expressing our
emotions to ourselves?”
Ayer vs Stevenson
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Venn Diagram comparison between the
two…SB to help. Ext – Possible
weaknesses noted around the edge.
Venn Diagram Summary