He is noted for his work on Ideal observer theory and radical empiricism.
2.
This makes ideal observer theory a cognitivism.
3.
While Adam Smith and David Hume are recognized to have espoused early versions of the ideal observer theory, Roderick Firth is responsible for starting a more sophisticated modern version.
4.
In addition to the theories of moral realism, moral universalism includes other cognitivist moral theories, such as the subjectivist ideal observer theory and the divine command theory, and also the non-cognitivist moral theory of universal prescriptivism.
5.
However there are also universalist forms of subjectivism such as ideal observer theory ( which claims that moral propositions are about what attitudes a hypothetical ideal observer would hold ) and divine command theory ( which claims that moral propositions are about what attitudes God holds ).
6.
In other words, ideal observer theory states that ethical judgments should be interpreted as statements about the judgments that a neutral and fully informed observer would make; " " x " is good " means " an ideal observer would approve of " x " ".
7.
For example, universal prescriptivism is a universalist form of non-cognitivism which claims that morality is derived from reasoning about implied imperatives, and divine command theory and ideal observer theory are universalist forms of ethical subjectivism which claim that morality is derived from the edicts of a god or the hypothetical decrees of a perfectly rational being, respectively.
8.
Ideal observer theory stands in opposition to other forms of ethical subjectivism ( e . g . divine command theory, moral relativism, and individualist ethical subjectivism ), as well as to moral realism ( which claims that moral propositions refer to objective facts, independent of anyone's attitudes or opinions ), error theory ( which denies that any moral propositions are true in any sense ), and non-cognitivism ( which denies that moral sentences express propositions at all ).
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