Coherence and Verification in Ethics

This book is an attempt to come to grips with the problem of the epistemological basis of ethical beliefs by building on criticisms of approaches to this problem which have been attempted in the recent past. Because of the extensive discussions and criticism of these various alternatives, the book may be useful to all who are concerned with the epistemology of ethics. Included are criticisms of the prescriptivist and emotivist alternatives growing out of the logical positivist tradition; various forms of intuitionism; the now popular coherentist approach; the rationalism of Gewirth and other is-ought derivations; and phenomenology (including its intuitionistic manifestations, as in Hartmna, and its anthropologist ones as in Scheler). Although each of these schools is found insufficient to accomplish the task alone, certain elements in each of them are necessary components of a workable moral epistemology.