Categorizing a List of Description Words

Maybe not as boring as the title suggests

I argue that all words are not ultimately neutral, but many (most) are. Some can move from Neutral to Good or Bad but only by interjecting additional criteria beyond basic, fact of the Universe morality—which I argue is inherently true, not arguable though difficult to grasp.

Consider this partial list of words categorized (I argue) by ultimate, inherent moral status (not mood affiliation):

Good:

• Ethical

• Moral

• Faithful

• Rational

• Capitalist

Neutral:

• Black, white, man, woman, American, European, African, etc.

• Atheist, Catholic, Islamist, Jew, agnostic, etc.

• Carpenter, accountant, engineer, politician (at least generally), homemaker, etc.

• Cynic (As I’ve argued before, yes, this one easily slips into the bad category, but on the surface it is neutral.)

Bad (aka, “boo”) words:

• Racist

• Evil

• Communist

• Socialist

My categorization reveals my values, and this serves as examples where I would argue these values are based upon essential values that cannot be argued against. There are two claims here (one strong and one weak):

1. The strong claim is that such a delineation can be made at all; hence, there are objective values.

2. The weak claim is that I have insight into it; hence, that my list might be on the right track.

The argument for #1 is based upon ethical intuitionism. The argument for #2 would be that my intuition is good. I call the first strong and the second weak because I am much more certain of the first than the second.