C.L. Stevenson
contemporaryAnalytic Philosophy, Emotivism1908 – 1979
Charles Leslie Stevenson (1908–1979) was an American philosopher and a leading figure in metaethics, best known for developing emotivism—the view that moral judgments primarily express the speaker's attitudes rather than state facts. His landmark work Ethics and Language (1944) provided the most systematic defense of the emotivist position and introduced influential concepts such as 'persuasive definition.' He taught principally at Yale University and the University of Michigan.
Notable Achievements
1
Developed the canonical statement of emotivism in Ethics and Language (1944)
2
Introduced the concept of 'persuasive definition'—definitions that shift emotive meaning to influence attitudes
3
Distinguished descriptive meaning from emotive meaning in ethical language
4
Analyzed moral disagreement as disagreement in attitude rather than belief
5
Extended A.J. Ayer's emotivist sketch into a full linguistic and psychological theory of ethics