Intuitionism

There are real, moral objective truths that are free of human intervention

• They cannot be broken down into parts, or defined by reference to anything but other moral truths.

• Humans can discover it by using their minds in an intuitive way.

G. E. Moore:

Intuitionism doesn’t meant solving problems entirely using intuition but rather intuition aids and enables decisions to be found.

Principia Ethica (Good is indefinable)

We know what yellow is like and can recognise it, but cannot actually define yellow. The same can be said for Good. We can know what it is but cannot define it.

• Good is indefinable

• There are objective, moral truths

• These are self evident to the mature mind

Moore said that there are things that cannot be broken down. These are called simple ideas. Moral terms are simple as they cannot be broken down. Complex ideas are those that can be broken down.

The open question argument:

1. Imagine you define good as pleasure

2. Good is then reduced to pleasure

3. ‘I get pleasure poisoning the water system’

4. But is it good?

5. Some people have different ideas of pleasure

Open question because it makes moral sense to ask it

But you cannot flip it because it makes it a closed question, or makes it not a question at all. Good cannot be defined in terms of natural properties. Whilst we can’t define good, our conscience is what tells us what is good.

H. A. Prichard

There are two types of thinking

Reason: Looks at the facts, practicality etc.

Intuition: decides what to do

The word ‘ought’ can be defined in a moral sense.

Like Moore’s idea of good, we recognise its properties.

Everyone recognises when we ought to do a certain action.

Moral obligations form immediate apprehension.

Just as 1+1=2 so is murder wrong. Both are self evident.

• Intuition comes from our duty

• Right and wrong comes from thinking about the action, not the action itself

• Duty comes from our feeling about the action

• Prichard’s moral intuition is subjective

• Some people have a clear moral intuition because their’s has developed more.

Ross:

What is your duty, is considered to be right. He was a deontologist and believed certain types of actions: ‘prima facie duties’ were right.

1. Fidelity, or promise keeping

2. Reparatio, when we have done something wrong

3. Gratitude

4. Justice

5. Beneficence-Helping others

6. Self-improvement

7. Non Maleficence-not harming others.

When duties conflict, we are to follow the one that seems right in the situation

Sometimes one prima facie duty will give way to another.

However, Ross still does not tell us how to decide. He believed it was down to a person’s moral maturity.

Strengths

Avoids the naturalistic fallacy

Intuitionism allows for objective moral values and supports the idea of moral realism. It does not dismiss the possibility of moral facts.

Intuition appeals to many different cultures and societies because many have the same idea of what is good.

Weaknesses:

How do we know what intuition is? How do we even know that it exists.

Prichard’s argument that people’s moral thinking is dependant on some having a clearer and developed intuition does not consider those who then do not know what is right and wrong because of this lack of development. Same goes for Ross and his argument that conflicting prima facie duties should come down to a person’s moral maturity.

Even if you do use your intuition, there is no guarantee that your outcome reflects what is moral.

The faculty of intuition is not explained properly. Contextual factors may influence intuition, and in turn, different cultures and contexts have different ideas of what is wrong and right

G E Moore is wrong to say that we have the same intuitive ideas of what is good and bad. That is simply not the case. We do not all recognise goodness intuitively in the same way.

Intuition should not be the sole basis of human morality.