C.I. Lewis

from conceptual pragmatism to contemporary metaethics

Diana Heney

pp. 35-61

in: Peter Olen, Carl Sachs (eds), Pragmatism in transition, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

Lewis is known as an epistemologist and logician but not as a value theorist. This chapter argues that Lewis's contributions to metaethics have been unjustly overlooked. The recovery of Lewis's metaethics requires situating Lewis as a pragmatist value theorist, and developing four key planks of his value theory. The chapter concludes with explication of why Lewis's value theory has been forgotten and how it can be used to resolve a debate between cognitivists and emotivists in contemporary metaethics.