Evaluating Intuitionism

Intuitionism can be seen as the best way to understand moral language. It is good because it promotes moral realism and gives a strong set of moral laws.

It is not reliant on a god, so appeals to the athiest/agnostic/polytheistic believer and is not undermined if the existence of God cannot be proven.

It does not fall into the naturalistic fallacy, which attempts to say that all good is pleasure therefore pleasure is good.

This is because intutitionism recognises that good is indefinable (G E Moore) and therefore is seen as the best way to understand moral language.

Many different cultures have similar ideas of what is good. This means that intuitionism is a worldwideheld view about morality and so for this reason, it is the best way to understand moral language.

However, on the other hand no one knows about the origins of intuition and where it comes form. For this reason, it may not be seen as the best way to understand moral language because it would be considered unwise to form over moral judgements on something that we do not know about.

There is also a problem if there are two options; both of which have come as a result of thinking intuitively. How are we to choose the best option to go for?

Despite the fact that many cultures have similar ideas of what is good, not all of them are similar. If our intuition is affected by the culture and society we live in, then there will undoubtably be contradictions concerning morality, making Intuitionism not the best way to understand moral language. An example is the Sharia laws int he Middle East in conflict with laws of freedom that the West may adopt.

Prichard said that in the case of conflicting prima facie duties, it is down to a person's moral judgement to decide between them But this is incredibly vague and does not consider if a person's moral judgement is underdeveloped. How can they make informed, moral choices? Therefore, intuitionism may not be the best way to understand moral language.

In conclusion, I think that oral decisions should not be made completley based on intuition because I do not think that intuition can result in a worldwide, agreeable ethical standpoint. Intuition will also certainly be affected by culture, upbringing, location, all of which have differing opinion. Intutionism could work well in conjunction with a compatible ethical belief though.

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