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Richard Hare 's Moral Judgement

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“Richard Hare is one of most foremost contemporary defenders of utilitarianism today. He is committed to the principle of utility - to the act which does more good, gives greater benefit, or which satisfies more preferences, or the stronger of two or more preferences.” (Hare, 1981). This essay will discuss how the Philosopher, Richard Hare, derives preference utilitarianism from moral judgement aspects such as prescriptivity and universalizability using various different example(s) to explain and create understanding, and finally the essay will be concluded as to how Richard Hare derived preference utilitarianism. Richard Hare somewhat supported ‘emotivism’- meaning one’s moral actions is prompted by attitudes. (Satris, 1982). According to Ayer’s theory of emotivism, the meaning of moral statements is not important, but rather what moral language actually does. Moral language focuses on two different forms of questions, namely: Formal questions and Substantive questions; Formal questions appeal to form and values and make use of the word “ought”, whereas Substantive questions are statements of factual content. Hume extends on this by suggesting that opposing parties can argue about factual content, but not necessarily one’s values. Therefore Hare places emphasis on and focuses primarily on the form of moral language, in other words, formal language and questions. According to Hare (1952), moral language has rules, and if there is an understanding of those rules the outcome

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