Any theory claiming that certain utterances have meaning by describing (or purporting to describe) some aspect of reality rather than in various other ways (for example, prescriptivism and emotivism).
In practice the term is confined to ethical utterances. ‘Lying is wrong’ and ‘You ought not to lie’ both purport to state moral facts, though descriptivism leaves it open whether they are reducible to facts of another kind (naturalism, for example).
Source:
R M Hare, ‘Descriptivism’, Proceedings of the British Academy (1963); critical
Table of Contents
- 1 Videos
- 2 Related Products
- 2.1 Descriptivism: How Grammar Really Works
- 2.2 The Meaning of 'Ought': Beyond Descriptivism and Expressivism in Metaethics (Oxford Moral Theory)
- 2.3 The Golden Age of Philosophy of Science 1945 to 2000: Logical Reconstructionism, Descriptivism, Normative Naturalism, and Foundationalism
- 2.4 Teaching the History of the English Language (Options for Teaching)
- 2.5 DESCRIPTIVISM Annual Philosophical Lecture, British Academy
- 2.6 TOWARD A STRUCTURAL THEORY OF LITERARY ANALYSIS Prolegomena to Evaluative Descriptivism
- 2.7 The Feeling of Value: Moral Realism Grounded in Phenomenal Consciousness
- 2.8 Kant and the Problem of Self-Knowledge (Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Philosophy)
- 2.9 Normativity and the Problem of Representation
- 2.10 Wittgenstein and Naturalism (Wittgenstein's Thought and Legacy Book 3)
Videos
Descriptivism: How Grammar Really Works
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Anne Curzan (Actor)
- Anne Curzan (Writer) - Anne Curzan (Producer)
- English (Playback Language)
- English (Subtitle)
The Meaning of 'Ought': Beyond Descriptivism and Expressivism in Metaethics (Oxford Moral Theory)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Chrisman, Matthew (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 280 Pages - 10/23/2015 (Publication Date) - Oxford University Press (Publisher)
The Golden Age of Philosophy of Science 1945 to 2000: Logical Reconstructionism, Descriptivism, Normative Naturalism, and Foundationalism
- Losee, John (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 328 Pages - 06/25/2020 (Publication Date) - Bloomsbury Academic (Publisher)
Teaching the History of the English Language (Options for Teaching)
- English (Publication Language)
- 360 Pages - 02/15/2019 (Publication Date) - The Modern Language Association of America, an imprint of Modern Language Association of America (Publisher)
DESCRIPTIVISM Annual Philosophical Lecture, British Academy
- Hare, R. M. (Author)
- 11/27/1963 (Publication Date) - Oxford University Press (Publisher)
TOWARD A STRUCTURAL THEORY OF LITERARY ANALYSIS Prolegomena to Evaluative Descriptivism
- Heller, L. G. / MacRis, James (Author)
- 11/27/1970 (Publication Date) - Institute for Systems Analysis (Publisher)
The Feeling of Value: Moral Realism Grounded in Phenomenal Consciousness
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Rawlette, Sharon (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 221 Pages - 05/11/2020 (Publication Date)
Kant and the Problem of Self-Knowledge (Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Philosophy)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Forgione, Luca (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 226 Pages - 10/17/2018 (Publication Date) - Routledge (Publisher)
Normativity and the Problem of Representation
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- English (Publication Language)
- 341 Pages - 06/04/2020 (Publication Date) - Routledge (Publisher)
Wittgenstein and Naturalism (Wittgenstein's Thought and Legacy Book 3)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- English (Publication Language)
- 348 Pages - 01/17/2018 (Publication Date) - Routledge (Publisher)
Last update 2020-06-17. Price and product availability may change.