THE TYPOLOGY OF METAETHICAL POSITIONS AND CONTEMPORARY NONCOGNITIVISM

In this paper the author presents and criticizes the classical typology of metaethics, which is based on the distinction between cognitivism and noncognitivism. Using this typology, which emerged in the first half of the twentieth century, one cannot classify many contemporary metaethical position adequately. This is due to the fact that these concepts confuse the contents of four independent metaethical domain: semantics, epistemology, psychology and ontology of ethics. Therefore, he proposes an alternative typology, which respects this independence and is useful in contemporary debates. Additionally, he introduces the concept of quasi-cognitivism, which can grasp important aspects of the metaethical views of such philosophers as Richard Hare, Simon Blackburn, Allan Gibbard, Mark Timmons or Terry Horgan.