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Single Idea 8012

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / b. Fact and value ]

Full Idea

One reason why it is highly misleading to talk of a logical gulf between value and fact....is that we cannot characterize the social life of a tribe in their factual terms and escape their evaluations.

Gist of Idea

The value/fact logical gulf is misleading, because social facts involve values

Source

Alasdair MacIntyre (A Short History of Ethics [1967], Ch.10)

Book Ref

MacIntyre,Alasdair: 'A Short History of Ethics' [Routledge 1967], p.124

A Reaction

Personally I like the objection that facts about functions cannot avoid the value of good functions, but this is very good. It is much better than simply trying to find a specific counterexample, such as facts about promises. Values just are facts.

The 25 ideas with the same theme [distinction between what is and what ought to be]:

4547 Plato measured the degree of reality by the degree of value [Nietzsche on Plato]
4581 Virtues and vices are like secondary qualities in perception, found in observers, not objects [Hume]
4008 Modern science has destroyed the Platonic synthesis of scientific explanation and morality [Hume, by Taylor,C]
8067 The problem of getting to 'ought' from 'is' would also apply in getting to 'owes' or 'needs' [Anscombe on Hume]
4578 You can't move from 'is' to 'ought' without giving some explanation or reason for the deduction [Hume]
5576 We cannot derive moral laws from experience, as it is the mother of illusion [Kant]
22203 Only facts follow from facts [Husserl]
22155 We are disenchanted because we rely on science, which ignores values [Weber, by Boulter]
20748 We do not add value to naked things; its involvement is disclosed in understanding it [Heidegger]
20928 Facts don't oppose values; they are integrated into each person's aspirations [Gadamer, by Zimmermann,J]
23434 There is no fact-value gap in 'owls should see in the dark' [Foot]
22487 Moral arguments are grounded in human facts [Foot]
22377 Whether someone is rude is judged by agreed criteria, so the facts dictate the value [Foot]
22378 We can't affirm a duty without saying why it matters if it is not performed [Foot]
22376 Facts and values are connected if we cannot choose what counts as evidence of rightness [Foot]
22491 Moral evaluations are not separate from facts, but concern particular facts about functioning [Foot]
7624 The word 'inconsiderate' nicely shows the blurring of facts and values [Putnam]
4135 Some ethical ideas, such as 'treachery' and 'promise', seem to express a union of facts and values [Williams,B]
3835 If it is true, you ought to believe it [Searle]
3836 If this is a man, you ought to accept similar things as men [Searle]
8012 The value/fact logical gulf is misleading, because social facts involve values [MacIntyre]
21837 Morality is normative because it identifies best practices among the normal practices [Flanagan]
4937 Systems that generate a sense of value are basic to the primitive brain [Edelman/Tononi]
4770 Nothing is more usual than to apply to external bodies every internal sensation which they occasion [Psillos]
22156 The facts about human health are the measure of the values in our lives [Boulter]