metaethics

American  

[met-uh-eth-iks, met-uh-eth-] / ˌmɛt əˈɛθ ɪks, ˈmɛt əˌɛθ- /

Or meta-ethics

noun

(usually used with a singular verb)

1. the philosophy of ethics ethics dealing with the meaning of ethical terms, the nature of moral discourse, and the foundations of moral principles.

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Other Word Forms

• metaethical adjective

Etymology

Origin of metaethics

First recorded in 1945–50; meta- + ethics

Example Sentences

Zoë A. Johnson King is a philosophy faculty fellow at New York University who specializes in the philosophy of action, ethics, and metaethics.

From Slate

Once when I was preparing to teach a course on literary theory, I woke up my wife in the middle of the night and read her a particularly powerful chapter of Mary Daly’s “Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism.”

From Washington Post

Philosophers, preoccupied for decades with metaethics, returned to the discussion of substantive ethical issues – the moral questions that concern the general public and, in particular, religious believers.

From The Guardian