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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 11 ideas from 'A Short History of Ethics'

'Dikaiosune' is justice, but also fairness and personal integrity [MacIntyre]
Sophists don't distinguish a person outside one social order from someone outside all order [MacIntyre]
When Aristotle speaks of soul he means something like personality [MacIntyre]
'Happiness' is a bad translation of 'eudaimonia', which includes both behaving and faring well [MacIntyre]
The Bible is a story about God in which humans are incidental characters [MacIntyre]
The value/fact logical gulf is misleading, because social facts involve values [MacIntyre]
In the Reformation, morality became unconditional but irrational, individually autonomous, and secular [MacIntyre]
The Levellers and the Diggers mark a turning point in the history of morality [MacIntyre]
I am naturally free if I am not tied to anyone by a contract [MacIntyre]
My duties depend on my identity, which depends on my social relations [MacIntyre]
Fans of natural rights or laws can't agree on what the actual rights or laws are [MacIntyre]