Abstract

How could assertions about ethics be objective, if they were not objective in the way that assertions about the physical world are objective? What is it for some kind of assertion to be objective? These are the questions my dissertation aims to answer. In preparation for my analysis of objectivity, I construct an account of linguistic practices that synthesizes David Lewis' work on the coordinative nature of language use with a Wittgensteinian emphasis on the place of socialization, habits and norms in linguistic behavior. I then argue that for a class of assertions to be objective is for the practice of using those assertions to serve a worthwhile function. Assertions about the physical world are objective because they serve the function of displaying features of the environment. Assertions about ethics do not serve this function, but they are objective because they serve another worthwhile function; they spread, sustain and articulate cooperative and stabilizing social practices