Dictionary

metaethics en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *me Proto-Indo-European *meth₂? Ancient Greek μετᾰ́ (metắ) Ancient Greek μετᾰ- (metă-)lbor. English meta- English ethics English metaethics From meta- + ethics. First attested in the 1930s.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) The study of the nature and meaning of moral judgments, and the foundations and the possibility of ethical reasoning as such.
   • However, he holds that ethics is not capable of proving cruelty—or happiness, for that matter—to be either good or bad. This view of the limitations of the reasoning of normative ethics belongs to metaethics. 1985, Kenneth Blackwell, The Spinozistic Ethics of Bertrand Russell, volume 1, →ISBN, page 6:
   • With respect to metaethics, some philosophers, known as cognitivists, believe that it is possible to identify objective criteria for determining what is ethically right or wrong, or good and bad. Others, however, question whether this is possible. 2006, Frederic G. Reamer, Social Work Values and Ethics, 3rd edition, →ISBN, page 62:

Forms

Deriveds

metaethic · metaethical