Abstract

In this paper the author argues that nonnaturalism, the theory which holds that ethical judgments and deliberations are, respectively, assertions of and searches for some supposed "non-natural" ethical facts accessible only to some supposed non-sensuous kind of perception ("intuition"), has been abandoned by philosophers prematurely. For, once construed properly as its rivals have been all along, the theory does not itself make these suppositions as its opponents allege; it merely attributes them by implication to the users of ethical language. The author argues that even if these suppositions implicit in ethical language were to be mistaken, there would still be a way of justifying ethical judgments.