“we can’t seem to figure out what ‘right’ might refer to besides these heuristics”
“Right” as the meta-ethical question doesn’t refer to heuristics, but when we talk of “right”, what we often mean to do is to refer to those heuristics (but not always). So I didn’t contrast the two senses you discuss in the first paragraph.
When one speaks, in some sense one always argues. So when you say that “saving that child was right”, you appeal to particular moral intuitions, i.e. heuristics, allowing other people to notice these intuitions and agree with you, not making a meta-ethical claim about this action being in accordance with the essence of “right”.
“Right” as the meta-ethical question doesn’t refer to heuristics, but when we talk of “right”, what we often mean to do is to refer to those heuristics (but not always). So I didn’t contrast the two senses you discuss in the first paragraph.
Do we really often mean to refer to those heuristics by “right”? Can you give me a couple of examples of when we clearly intend to do that?
When one speaks, in some sense one always argues. So when you say that “saving that child was right”, you appeal to particular moral intuitions, i.e. heuristics, allowing other people to notice these intuitions and agree with you, not making a meta-ethical claim about this action being in accordance with the essence of “right”.
Sometimes when one speaks one speaks for oneself!