Quine on Ethics

In support of his noncognitivist view on ethics, Quine appeals to the claim that there are no ethical observation sentences. I argue that, given one of Quine's definition of 'observation sentence', this claim is false, while, given another, it is true. However, if taken strictly, no sentence satisfies the condition imposed by that definition. And even if it might be argued that the condition is satisfied to a higher degree by some nonethical sentences than by any ethical sentence, the relevance of this consideration is unclear. I conclude that the argument fails to vindicate noncognitivism.