Charles Stevenson (philosopher)

Charles Leslie Stevenson (1908-1979) was an American philosopher best known for his work in ethics, particularly his development of emotivism. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Stevenson received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1935. He subsequently taught at Yale University for much of his career, where he had a significant influence on the field of moral philosophy.

Stevenson's primary contribution to ethics lies in his book Ethics and Language (1944). In this work, he elaborated on and defended emotivism, a meta-ethical view that claims that ethical statements do not express facts about the world, but rather express the speaker's attitudes (emotions, feelings) and are intended to influence the attitudes of the listener. Unlike earlier versions of emotivism, Stevenson's account recognized two components of meaning: descriptive meaning and emotive meaning. Descriptive meaning refers to the literal, factual content of a statement, while emotive meaning refers to the feelings or attitudes a statement expresses or evokes.

Stevenson argued that ethical disagreements often involve disagreements in attitude, not just disagreements about facts. For example, when two people disagree about whether something is "good," they may not be disagreeing about any objective property of the thing, but rather expressing conflicting feelings or preferences. Furthermore, Stevenson believed that ethical language is used persuasively, aiming to change the attitudes of others. He distinguished between first-order agreement (agreement in belief) and second-order agreement (agreement in attitude). He recognized that even if people agree on the facts of a situation (first-order agreement), they might still disagree on its ethical evaluation (second-order disagreement).

Stevenson's work was influential in shaping the development of meta-ethics in the mid-20th century. While emotivism has faced criticism, particularly regarding its apparent inability to account for rational ethical argument, Stevenson's analysis of the emotive and persuasive aspects of moral language remains a significant contribution to the field. He also made significant contributions to aesthetics and philosophy of language. His other notable publications include Facts and Values (1963).