He was a large supporter of Emotivism, along with A. J. Ayer and Rudolf Carnap. In his The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms (1937), Persuasive Definitions (1938), and Ethics and Language (1944), he developed a theory of Emotive meaning which he then used to provide a foundation for his theory of a Persuasive definition. He furthermore advanced emotivism as a meta_ethical theory that sharply delineated between cognitive, scientific uses of language (used to state facts, give reasons, and subject to the laws of science) and non_cognitive (used to state feelings and exercise influence). Similar to the Hobbesiannaturalistic approach to subjectivism, Stevenson considered moral judgments (statements about ethics) to be about one's feelings, useful only in influencing others.
8 Versatility was one of Stevenson’s most conspicuous qualities, for, besides being the foremost essayist since Lamb and a master of fiction, whether in the form of romance or in that of short story, he was also a dramatist and a poet.
In these romances, Stevenson is at his best, like Scott, when he is dealing with his native land; but a comparison with the Waverley novels shows that, fine as his work is, it falls decidedly short of the greatest.
Stevenson was growing till he died, and the wonderful creation of the old judge, one of the best drawn characters in prose fiction, deepens the regret that his days were numbered.
Stevenson maintained that his art, his life, and his mode of creation were all in some part derivative of the highly exaggerated and romantic world that he had inherited from Skelt's toy.
Stevenson detailed his three cruises and adventures in the letters he wrote to his friends, exulting in his newfound health, relating incidents of life on the open sea, and capturing the flavor of life lived away from Western civilization.
What Stevenson was left with was a literary reputation based solely on his romances--a reputation that solidly ignored his South Seas fiction, his essays, his travelogues about America and the Pacific, and the letters that revealed his enthusiasm for his craft and for the islanders of the South Pacific.
Feeds |
Contact