英和和英

語源 1

Coined by American psychologist Henry H. Goddard in 1910, from Ancient Greek μωρόν (mōrón), the neuter form of μωρός (mōrós, “foolish, dull”).

名詞

moron (plural morons)

1. (informal, derogatory) A stupid person; an idiot; a fool.

   Synonyms: imbecile, idiot, retard (offensive); see also Thesaurus:fool, Thesaurus:idiot

   • 2024 March 14, Norman Finkelstein, 01:06 from the start, in Norm Finkelstein calls Destiny a fantastic moron / Lex Fridman Podcast‎, Lex Clips:

     Mr. Borelli, Mr. Borelli, with all due respect, you're such a fantastic moron it's terrifying.

2. (psychology, dated, originally) A person of mild mental subnormality in the former classification of mental retardation, having an intelligence quotient of 50–70.

   Synonyms: imbecile, idiot, retard (offensive)

使用する際の注意点

• The current medical term for having an IQ between 50 and 70 is “mild intellectual disability”.

派生語

関連する語

派生した語

• → French: moron
• → Turkish: moron

Further reading

• Moron (psychology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

語源 2

Coined by American legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin in late 20th c.; by surface analysis, mor(al) +‎ -on. The obvious idea that the homonymy with the usual sense of moron was likely intentional has been supported by some of Dworkin's fellow philosophers.

名詞

moron (plural morons)

1. (philosophy) A hypothetical particle whose existence and configuration can make a moral judgment true. (Can we verify this sense?)
   • 2016, Sharon Street, “Chapter 12: Objectivity and Truth: You'd Better Rethink It”, in Russ Shafer-Landau, editor, Oxford Studies in Metaethics‎, volume 11, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 308-309:

     Encouraged by this solution to the puzzle in the case of judgments about our manifest surroundings, one might hope that a similar solution can be offered to the parallel puzzle concerning normative judgments. One example of this solution might be to affirm the existence of what Dworkin calls morons (p. 104)—special moral particles with causal powers—and then to explain why an ability to detect morons tended to promote the reproductive success of ancestors who possessed this ability. The thought is that perhaps an inability to detect these particles led to decreased reproductive success, just as an inability to detect boulders, trees, and lakes did. As his moron terminology suggests, however, Dworkin utterly rejects any solution along these lines. He thinks the idea of morons is absurd (pp. 104-5), and indeed takes the view that normative properties never play a role in our best causal explanations. Moral rightness and wrongness, goodness, normative reasons, value, and so on, in Dworkin's view, are not things with causal powers at all, and it is a misguided test for the existence of these things to ask whether or not they play a role in our best causal explanations (p. 119). As Thomas Nagel has put the point, "Mackie [has argued that] reasons play no role in causal explanations. But it begs the question to assume that this sort of explanatory necessity is the test of reality for values. The claim that certain reasons exist is a normative claim, not a claim about the best causal explanation of anything."²⁵ As we saw earlier, this rejection of the idea that reasons and values are things with causal powers is a distinguishing feature of non-naturalist versions of normative realism in general. I think there is more to be said about this second possible solution to the puzzle than Dworkin's talk of "morons" suggests. Yet in the end, I agree with Dworkin, Nagel, and other non-naturalist realists on this point. Rightness, wrongness, goodness, normative reasons, value, and so on are very different things than trees and boulders, and no plausible causal account will solve the practical/theoretical puzzle. I will not argue for this point here, however; I say more about it elsewhere.²⁶ I mention this second possible solution only to set it aside; in what follows I will assume with Dworkin and other non-naturalist realists that this second solution to the puzzle fails, allowing us to focus on Dworkin's proposed solution.

アナグラム

• Monro, normo-