Emotivism and Deflationary Truth
Author: Swan K.S.1
Source: Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 83, Number 3, September 2002 , pp. 270-281(12)
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
Abstract:
The paper investigates different ways to understand the claim that noncognitivists theories of morality are incoherent. According to the claim, this is so because, on one theory of truth, noncognitivists are not able to deny objective truth to moral judgments without taking a substantive normative position. I argue that emotivism is not selfdefeating in this way. The charge of incoherence actually only amounts to a claim that emotivism is incompatible with deflationary truth, but this claim is based upon a mistake. It relies upon a problematic understanding of both emotivism and the deflationary theory of truth.

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