Metaethics is one of the three branches of ethics usually recognized by philosophers, the others being normative ethics and applied ethics. It’s a field of study that tries to understand the metaphysical, epistemological and semantic characteristics as well as the foundations and scope of moral values. It worries about questions and problems such as "Are moral judgments objective or subjective, relative or absolute?", "Do moral facts exist?" or “How do we learn moral values?”.
The metaethical positions are defined by the way authors try to answer the mentioned questions. Garner & Rosen (1967) have proposed a division of such theories based on three major concepts or types of questions: Semantic, Substantial and Justification.
The first group of theories deals with questions pertaining the meaning of moral terms. That is, it tries to solve questions such as "What does right or wrong actually mean?" or "What do people refer to when they say something is right?". It can be further divided into Cognitive and Non-cognitive theories, regarding whether we consider moral values to have a logical structure, expressing truth beliefs, or simply represent emotional responses....