Moral values are standards for judging actions, persons, and states of affairs as good, bad, right, wrong, just, or unjust. Their source is disputed: different meta-ethical theories understand them as objective truths, human constructions, cultural products, or expressions of attitudes.
The Meta-Ethical Question
“Cruelty is wrong” illustrates meta-ethics: what “wrong” means, whether moral judgments can be true or false, and what justifies them. By contrast, normative ethics asks which judgments are correct and how people should act.
The main accounts differ over the source and status of value:
| Meta-ethical position | Account of moral values |
|---|---|
| Moral realism | Values exist independently of opinion; judgments report objective facts. |
| Ethical naturalism | Values are identified with or grounded in natural facts such as welfare or flourishing. |
| Non-naturalism | Objective moral properties are irreducible to natural properties and may be known through reason or intuition. |
| Constructivism | Principles result from rational procedures, such as rules free and equal agents could accept. |
| Moral relativism | Standards depend on a culture, society, or framework; communities may therefore have different valid standards. |
| Emotivism | Judgments express approval or disapproval rather than report moral facts and can influence attitudes. |
A crucial distinction is between the causal origin of a belief and its justification. Family or culture may explain why someone holds a value without proving it true. Deriving an “ought” solely from descriptive facts also risks the isought gap unless an additional moral premise is supplied.
Exam Technique
In an IB Philosophy response, define moral values, distinguish normative ethics from meta-ethics, and compare at least two positions. For evaluate, give an argument, counterargument, and justified conclusion about which account best explains moral authority and disagreement. Use the example consistently to expose differences in truth, objectivity, and justification. Avoid the misconception that cultural influence automatically proves moral relativism.
