Æ
AIEthica
C-014MetaethicsConfidence: High

Disagreement and the Semantics of Normative and Evaluative Terms.

Plunkett, David, and Timothy Sundell (2013)

Source link ↗Drill this readingDiscuss with AI

One-Sentence Thesis

The authors argue that speakers can genuinely disagree with each other even while not meaning the same thing by their words, and that metalinguistic negotiations are a common mechanism for reflecting such disagreements.

Argument Outline

  1. 1Introduction to Hare's case of the missionary and the cannibals
  2. 2Discussion of the intuition that the missionary and the cannibals are genuinely disagreeing
  3. 3Critique of Hare's argument that the missionary and the cannibals must mean the same thing by the word 'good'
  4. 4Introduction to the concept of metalinguistic usage and metalinguistic negotiations
  5. 5Discussion of the role of metalinguistic negotiations in reflecting disagreements about conceptual ethics

Key Distinctions

Between descriptive and prescriptive matters of word usage
Between metalinguistic usage and literal usage of linguistic expressions

Key Terms

Metalinguistic usage
The use of a linguistic expression to communicate information about the appropriate usage of that expression in context
Metalinguistic negotiation
A dispute that employs competing metalinguistic usages of an expression, and that reflects a disagreement about the proper deployment of linguistic representations
Conceptual ethics
Questions about how to live and what to do, including questions about which concepts to employ and how to use words

Flashcards

30 cards
Open in SRS Flashcard mode →

Related Questions

Start quiz
3

In Plunkett, David, and Timothy Sundell's "Disagreement and the Semantics of Normative and Evaluative Terms.", the authors responds to which of the following?

3

In Plunkett, David, and Timothy Sundell's "Disagreement and the Semantics of Normative and Evaluative Terms.", Plunkett and Sundell explains which of the following?

3

Which concept is a central focus of Plunkett, David, and Timothy Sundell's "Disagreement and the Semantics of Normative and Evaluative Terms."?

4

Which of the following does Plunkett, David, and Timothy Sundell responds to in "Disagreement and the Semantics of Normative and Evaluative Terms."?

3

In Plunkett, David, and Timothy Sundell's "Disagreement and the Semantics of Normative and Evaluative Terms.", Pekka Väyrynen writes which of the following?

3

In Plunkett, David, and Timothy Sundell's "Disagreement and the Semantics of Normative and Evaluative Terms.", Egan supports which of the following?