Hi Craig, On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 2:20 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > [Steve] >> (as Putnam and Pierce insist) we are never in the >> position of agreeing only on a set of ises but not on any oughts. > > But this doesn't help. It's not truth or agreement concerning "oughts" > that is at issue, rather whether they FOLLOW from some set of "ises".
Steve: It doesn't help with what? Some of the things that accompany any set of "ises" as premises in an inquiry are a bunch of unstated is-premises and ought-premises including all the "oughts" that tell us how we should proceed from premises to conclusions. One of these usually unstated ought-premises that accompanies any set of is-premises in an inquiry is that one unders discussion which says that we ought not derive any new "oughts" by considering only a set of is-premises. To derive new "oughts" we need to appeal to at least one ought-premise. Putnam is saying that at least one ought-premise is actually always available practice though our particular set of is and ought premises may not warrant the desired conclusion. Note also that despite the fact that we could never derive a new "ought" from a set of is-premises alone, we also could never derive a new "is" from a set of is-premises alone. There is no is-ought gap that is any more or a problem in practice than an ought-is or a is-is gap. While it is good to keep in mind that there is no description of the way things are that could in itself tell us how things ought to be, instead of a philosophical problem to be overcome this claim should serve as a slogan to remind us that no description of the way things are floats free of human concerns--is not itself based on some ought-premises that ought to brought to light and examined rather than accpted as dogma. Any new description that is created is created for some purpose based on various notions of what a useful description for those purposes ought to be like. The True is in this way is always subordinate to The Good, as Pirsig would say. As Hume put it, "reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions." Best, Steve Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
