What does "emotivism" mean?

The meta-ethical stance that ethical judgments, such as those containing the words "should" and "ought to", are primarily expressions of one's own attitude and imperatives meant to change the attitudes and actions of another.

Emotivism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
The meta-ethical stance that ethical judgments, such as those containing the words "should" and "ought to", are primarily expressions of one's own attitude and imperatives meant to change the attitudes and actions of another. countable, uncountable
"Another important meta-ethical theory is known as emotivism or non-cognitivism. Emotivists ... claim that all ethical statements are literally meaningless."

Example

More examples

"Another important meta-ethical theory is known as emotivism or non-cognitivism. Emotivists ... claim that all ethical statements are literally meaningless."

Etymology

From emotive + -ism.

Related phrases

meta ethical

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.