Premium
Analytical Descriptivism Revisited
Author(s) -
Hatzimoysis Anthony
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
ratio
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-9329
pISSN - 0034-0006
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9329.00173
Subject(s) - linguistic description , epistemology , metaphysics , reductionism , philosophy , morality , meaning (existential) , philosophy of language , linguistics , semantics (computer science) , sociology , computer science , programming language
Analytical descriptivism purports to identify the meaning of ethical sentences with that of the descriptive sentences that capture the clauses of mature folk morality. The paper questions the plausibility of analytical descriptivism by examining its implications for the semantics, epistemology and metaphysics of morals. The discussion identifies some of the reasons why the analytical descriptivist fails to deliver a reductionist account of normativity.