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Full Idea
If there is nothing to judgements of virtue and vice except the expression of feelings of approval and disapproval, there can be no criteria external to those feelings by appeal to which we may pass judgement upon them.
Gist of Idea
If morality just is emotion, there are no external criteria for judging emotions
Source
Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue: a Study in Moral Theory [1981], Ch.16)
Book Ref
MacIntyre,Alasdair: 'After Virtue: a Study in Moral Theory' [Duckworth 1982], p.214
A Reaction
The idea that there can be right and wrong feelings may be the key idea in virtue theory. See Idea 5217. A good person would be ashamed to have a bad feeling. Some emotional responses are intrinsically wicked, apart from actions.
Related Idea
Idea 5217 At times we ought to feel angry, and we ought to desire health and learning [Aristotle]
| 5217 | At times we ought to feel angry, and we ought to desire health and learning [Aristotle] |
| 5236 | It is foolish not to be angry when it is appropriate [Aristotle] |
| 23911 | Possessors of a virtue tend to despise what reason shows to be its opposite [Aristotle] |
| 22590 | Virtue is concerned with correct feelings [Aristotle] |
| 6287 | If you lust after a woman, you have committed adultery [Jesus] |
| 24183 | We should only perform the good actions which we can't help doing [Weil] |
| 8061 | If morality just is emotion, there are no external criteria for judging emotions [MacIntyre] |
| 6701 | Rescue operations need spontaneous benevolence, not careful thought [Graham] |
| 3221 | Our desires become important when we have desires about desires [Rey] |
| 4346 | The emotions of sympathy, compassion and love are no guarantee of right action or acting well [Hursthouse] |