Combining Texts

Ideas for '67: Platonic Questions', 'The Language of Morals' and 'Causation and Supervenience'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these texts

display all the ideas for this combination of texts

---

1 idea

22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / i. Prescriptivism

2855	In primary evaluative words like 'ought' prescription is constant but description can vary [Hare, by Hooker,B]
	Full Idea: Hare says words are secondarily evaluative (e.g. 'soft-hearted') if prescriptive meaning varies but description is constant; primarily evaluative words ('good', 'right', 'ought') are the opposite, with the descriptive content varying.
	From: report of Richard M. Hare (The Language of Morals [1952]) by Brad W. Hooker - Prescriptivism p.640
	A reaction: I would have thought that the prescriptive meaning of the evaluative word could at least vary in strength. You really, really ought to do that.