metaethics

or met·a-eth·ics

[ met-uh-eth-iks, met-uh-eth- ]

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.

Other Words From

• meta·ethi·cal adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of metaethics¹

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