Notes on Chapter 1 of Holmes, Basic Moral Philosophy
Important Concepts

value judgment—a judgment that something is good/bad or that one thing is
better/worse than something else (“Detroit is a better team than Chicago”)

prescriptive judgment—a judgment that something is right/wrong or ought/ought
not to be done (e.g., “That is the wrong way to hold a golf club,” (“You ought to
keep your promises”)

normative judgment—a judgment that presupposes a norm or standard; category
includes both value judgments and prescriptive judgments

descriptive statement—a factual statement about the world (e.g., “Houghton gets
more snow than Marquette,” “Water freezes at 34 degrees Fahrenheit”)

moral judgment—one type of normative judgment; presupposes a moral norm or
standard (e.g., “We should always tell the truth”)

nonmoral judgment—any judgment that does not presuppose a moral norm or
standard; may be either normative or nonnormative (e.g., “Australia is in the
southern hemisphere”)

descriptive (factual) statement—a statement that purports to represent some fact
about the world
judgments/statements
┌───────────┴─────────────────┐
normative
nonnormative
judgments
statements
┌─────────────┴───────────┐
value
prescriptive
judgments
judgments
┌─────┴─────┐
moral
nonmoral


│
descriptive
statements
┌──────┴───────┐
moral
nonmoral
descriptive ethics—concerned primarily with descriptive statements relating to
ethics, e.g., sociological statements about ethical beliefs and practices in different
societies
normative ethics—concerned primarily with moral judgments and their
foundations

applied ethics—concerned with moral judgments about specific types of behavior
(e.g., sex, violence, distribution of wealth)

moral psychology—the study of human motivation as it relates to morality

metaethics—the study of the logic of ethical reasoning and the meanings of
ethical concepts and statements
Moral philosophy includes—
1. normative ethics
2. applied ethics
3. moral psychology
4. metaethics
Two Kinds of Moral Conflicts:
1. Conflicts between Moral Standards and Nonmoral Normative Standards (e.g.,
social custom, the law)
2. Conflicts between apparently incompatible moral principles or obligations