Abstract:
The purpose of this research is to study the main ideas of P.M. Hare's ethical theory which mainly focuses on meanings and functions of moral words and statements. Furthermore, we will focus on the principal characteristics, the validities, and the importance of Hare's moral reasoning on ethics. The result of this research shows that according to Hare, the main function of moral words is not used for describing facts, but for commending things or actions or in the other words for guiding choices. The meaning of moral words has 2 characteristics: first, it is prescriptive or imperative; second, it is universalizable. As for Hare, moral reasoning can work out reasonably on the basis that the meaning usage of moral is consistent and with the purpose to find suitable moral rules used as practical trends to certain situations. The judgements whether to accept the action generated by the moral statements or not depends on the user's desire. This research comes to the conclusion that Hare's ethical theory is important to ethics since it analyses the function and meaning of moral words and moral reasoning far better than Emotivism. But the judgements of the righthess or wrongness of the action in itself which is one of the duties of ethical has not yet been answered by Hare's ethical theory. The suggestion for further research is to analyze Descriptivism which attempts to improve some defects in Hare's ethical therory and adjust it to more complete state.