contention that providing guidance is always the main purpose of moral talk. Hare seems to implicitly assume that moral language is always used in a context of discussion, debate, or command in which one person is telling another person, or persons, what to do. This, it is claimed, ignores the fact that moral talk is a “language-game” that is used for a wide variety of purposes. Finally, many critics have argued that prescriptivism conflicts with the commonsense distinction between good and bad reasons for moral beliefs. According to Hare, a racist “fanatic” who claims that all minority-group members should be deported, and is willing to stick with this consistently (e.g., even if the racist herself were a member of the minority group), cannot be faulted for either irrationality or falsehood. Ethics, for Hare, is thus ultimately a matter of non-rational choice and commitment. Many of Hare's critics object that reason does and should play a larger role in ethics than he recognizes. See also Non-cognitivism Notes References External links Moral Cognitivism vs. Non-Cognitivism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Universal Prescriptivism FAQ Meta-ethics