Who Is Afraid of the Logical Problem in Meta-Ethics?

Abstract

AbstractExpressivism, as applied to a certain class of statements, evaluative ones, for instance, is constituted by two doctrines, only the first of which will concern me in this paper. Evaluative statements, according to this doctrine, aren’t propositional (susceptible of truth or falsity). In this paper, I will argue that one of the vexing problems (that I label the “logical problem”) this doctrine engenders for the expressivist is equally pressing for some cognitivists (who think evaluative statementsdohave a truth-value). I will present the difficulty and argue that some constructivists, whoarecognitivists, cannot contend with it at all, and others must resort to more complex ways than the one available to other cognitivists.