Wikipedia’s metaethics article
might be a good alternative starting point -- lukeprog’s article does not add too much to that I think.
Anyway, meta-ethics tries to figure out the ways to determine the actual
values of ‘variables’ like right and wrong in first-order ethics.
Personally, I don’t think there is any objective way to determine this;
meta-ethics can concern itself with the question whether any proposal is
logically consistent but cannot really determine the answer. Morals are a
human invention and I can’t see how one could ever prove anything—there are only our intuitions.
Similar to things like free will or purpose in life, ethics seem merely
like a useful illusion.
Wikipedia’s metaethics article might be a good alternative starting point -- lukeprog’s article does not add too much to that I think.
Anyway, meta-ethics tries to figure out the ways to determine the actual values of ‘variables’ like right and wrong in first-order ethics.
Personally, I don’t think there is any objective way to determine this; meta-ethics can concern itself with the question whether any proposal is logically consistent but cannot really determine the answer. Morals are a human invention and I can’t see how one could ever prove anything—there are only our intuitions.
Similar to things like free will or purpose in life, ethics seem merely like a useful illusion.