J.L. Mackie's metaethical theory that all moral statements are systematically false because they refer to objective moral facts that do not exist. Unlike other anti-realist theories, it treats moral statements as genuine factual claims that happen to be mistaken.
From Latin 'error' (wandering, mistake) and Greek 'theoria' (contemplation). Developed by J.L. Mackie in the 1970s as a form of moral anti-realism that takes moral language at face value while denying the existence of moral facts.
Error-theory is like discovering that all our talk about witches refers to things that don't exist - moral statements seem factual and meaningful, but they're all false because there are no moral facts to make them true! It's moral nihilism with a cognitive twist.
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