Preface

Abstract

Ethical theory between 1914 and 1964 underwent a significant transition from traditional realism to modern linguistic and non-cognitive analyses. Fifty years of philosophical inquiry addressed core problems in moral philosophy, including the doctrine of consequences, the function of false hypotheses, and the metaphysical tensions between determinism and libertarianism. Applied ethical investigations often responded to contemporary socio-political crises, specifically regarding the moral legitimacy of national defense and the definition of conscientious action during wartime. Theoretical distinctions further delineate the boundaries between psychological and ethical egoism, while establishing a framework for understanding obligations as either ultimate or derived. A central development during this period concerns the semantic and logical status of moral assertions. While initial theories operated on the assumption that moral sentences ascribe specific predicates to subjects, subsequent critiques argued that the grammatical form of such statements is fundamentally misleading. This shift moved the discourse toward examining whether moral language expresses factual judgments or performs non-cognitive functions, such as the expression of attitudes or commands. This thematic progression illustrates the broader twentieth-century movement toward interrogating the linguistic structures and psychological motives underlying moral discourse. – AI-generated abstract.