is-ought problem Archives

Portrait of David Hume by Allan Ramsay

Introduction:

The towering influence of Enlightenment philosopher David Hume has at least partially informed all of my articles across this past month (and, more indirectly, all of the articles before then as well). And although The Gemsbok’s artist, M.R.P., did a sketch of Hume for the article last week on epistemology, that homage would perhaps have fit better next to today’s article, which will consider a topic often attributed to David Hume—if not as its originator, at least as its first notable, direct, and clear articulator. The topic in question is the is-ought problem (also known as Hume’s Law).

A few of my readers, discussing my article on the exclusively functional objectivity of our socially evolved morality in a forum thread, have raised the is-ought problem as an objection to some of the ideas presented there. While I think that careful readers of that article will already have a fair idea of my response to such objections, I imagine it would be helpful to provide something more explicit. While I would not deny the existence and importance of moral oughts as such, I would seek to offer a moral anti-realist, contractarian account of what oughts ought to be.

[Topics: Contractarian Ethics, Is-Ought Problem, Moral Anti-realism]

Dealing in What Is:

How the Is-Ought Problem Factors into Moral Anti-realism

was last modified: October 28th, 2023 by Daniel Podgorski

Introduction:

This is a post about moral decision-making, but it is not a post that engages at length with the particular theories involved. As the title is meant to imply, this article discusses a more general point about how any given philosopher uses philosophy to inform both the ises and the oughts of their perceptions and practices.

In the first post in this series, I argued that moral anti-realism may be true and yet have a functionally objective morality nested within it (as a feature of our evolved minds). Across the past few thousand years, compatibilists have argued that determinism may be true and yet have free will nested within it (as a feature of our freedom to act in accordance with our determined motivations). And, as I will treat briefly below, there is a general strategy available here of reconciling two halves of a dichotomous debate by attempting to understand what aspects of each side are really supported by the relevant evidence for each side. In particular, consequentialists and deontologists might make a more compelling case if they ceased to see their views as mutually exclusive.

Tag Archives: is-ought problem

[Topics: Contractarian Ethics, Is-Ought Problem, Moral Anti-realism]
Dealing in What Is:
How the Is-Ought Problem Factors into Moral Anti-realism

How the Is-Ought Problem Factors into Moral Anti-realism

Introduction:

How the Is-Ought Problem Factors into Moral Anti-realism

[Topics: Decision-making, Logic, Metaethics]
Moral Decision-making, and Navigating Philosophy:
How Consequentialists, Deontologists, and Other Normative Ethicists Actually Make Choices

How Consequentialists, Deontologists, and Other Normative Ethicists Actually Make Choices

Introduction:

How Consequentialists, Deontologists, and Other Normative Ethicists Actually Make Choices

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