НАТУРАЛИЗМ ЭТИЧЕСКИЙ

Naturalism, Ethical

A general name given to theories (see Hedonism, Evolutionary Ethics, and others) united by the principle that the concept of good is determined through some kind of "natural", i.e., "extra-moral" concept, for example, pleasure, biological evolution, etc. (logical positivists and intuitionists consider this a "naturalistic mistake"). Marxism has proved that from naturalistic positions it is impossible to give a consistently materialistic account of the essence of moral categories or to trace the origin of morality.

In the 1940s and 1950s naturalism became a trend whose proponents defended some scientific principles of ethics against the frankly idealist criticism of the neo-positivists and intuitionists. These principles are: (1) moral good is objective, it is connected with the social system, the interests and requirements of people; (2) the concept of good can be determined and moral standards objectively justified; (3) moral judgements have objective importance, their truth can be verified and demonstrated; (4) ethics and moral principles can be scientific if they are based on data of other social sciences. The criticism levelled by naturalists against idealism in ethics and the elements of materialism contained in their theories are progressive on the whole. Mention should be made of the works of Mario Bunge (Argentina) and Abraham Edel (USA).