Error Theory: a critical evaluation

Authors

  • Jaime Parera Rebello Universidade de Caxias do Sul

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2017.2.26582

Keywords:

metaethics, Error Theory, queerness argument.

Abstract

Among modern metaethical theories John Mackie’s Error Theory is one of the most influential. This is not accidental. Mackie’s theory is new, is interesting and is supported by clear and challenging arguments. In spite of all this, a case will be mounted here against Mackie’s main theses. Firstly, it will be claimed that, if his main argument, the argument from queerness, is taken as sound, what follows from it is not the systematic falsity of moral statements, as Mackie claims, but something else. Secondly it will be argued that the queerness argument itself is not sound. The result is a rejection of the main points of Mackie’s theory.

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Author Biography

Jaime Parera Rebello, Universidade de Caxias do Sul

Professor do Programa de Pós-Graduação da Universidade de Caxias do Sul.

References

BLOOMFIELD, P. “Error Theory and the Concept of Morality”. Metaphilosophy, 44, 4 (2013), p. 451-469. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12041

JOYCE, Q.; KIRCHIN, S. “Introduction”. In: Joyce, Richard; Kirchin, Simon (Ed.). A World Without Values. Heidelberg: Springer, 2010. p. ix-xxiv. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3339-0

MACKIE, J. Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong. London: Penguin Books, 1977.

OLSON, J. Moral Error Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198701934.001.0001

PIGDEN, C. “Nihilism, Nietsche, and the Doppleganger Problem”. In: Joyce, Richard; Kirchin, Simon (Ed.). A World Without Values. Heidelberg: Springer, 2010. p. 17-34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3339-0_2

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Published

2017-10-26

How to Cite

Rebello, J. P. (2017). Error Theory: a critical evaluation. Veritas (Porto Alegre), 62(2), 453–466. https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2017.2.26582

Issue

Vol. 62 No. 2 (2017): Dossier: Post-structuralist precisions

Section

Varia

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