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Full Idea
The common objects of moral approval and disapproval are not particular actions so much as classes of actions.
Gist of Idea
Moral approval and disapproval concerns classes of actions, rather than particular actions
Source
A.J. Ayer (Introduction to 'Language Truth and Logic' [1946], p.27)
Book Ref
Ayer,A.J.: 'Language, Truth and Logic' [Penguin 1974], p.27
A Reaction
This 1946 revision of his pure emotivism looks like a move towards Hare's prescriptivism, where classes, rules and principles are seen as the window-dressing of emotivism. It's still a bad theory.
| 5162 | Sentences only express propositions if they are meaningful; otherwise they are 'statements' [Ayer] |
| 5163 | Basic propositions refer to a single experience, are incorrigible, and conclusively verifiable [Ayer] |
| 5164 | A statement is meaningful if observation statements can be deduced from it [Ayer] |
| 5165 | Directly verifiable statements must entail at least one new observation statement [Ayer] |
| 5166 | The principle of verification is not an empirical hypothesis, but a definition [Ayer] |
| 5167 | The argument from analogy fails, so the best account of other minds is behaviouristic [Ayer] |
| 5168 | Moral approval and disapproval concerns classes of actions, rather than particular actions [Ayer] |