The Psychologically Filled-Out Theory

Abstract

The purpose of this final chapter is to show (i) how the emotive theory of moral psychology outlined in the previous chapter can be accommodated by the versions of the ET proposed by Ayer and Stevenson, and (ii) how the acknowledged deficiencies of these earlier versions can be addressed in the light of this accommodated moral psychology. Before turning to these tasks, however, I will need to do a little house-keeping. In the terms of the architectural analogy I used in my introduction: the original ET’s linguistic facade needs to be detached and discarded so as to highlight the structural integrity of its justificatory claims, and its interior, which has, for the past thirty years, been housing an abandoned labyrinth of dated and redundant linguistic clutter, needs to be gutted so as to maximise its accommodating potential.