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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Judgments about what is right (about means) are also in t... — Carmelics
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    Home/Philosophy of Language
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    Judgments about what is right (about means) are also in the optative mood and incapable of truth or falsity.

    ConsequentialismPhilosophy of Language
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Frege's embedding problem shows that non-cognitivist expressions in complex sentences preserve their non-truth-apt force rather than acquiring descriptive content.
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    • 2.When 'good' functions as an optative operator, its compositional contribution to 'X is right' transmits expressive force throughout the sentence, not propositional content.
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    • 3.Geach's own analysis of this problem concedes that unasserted optative clauses within larger constructions do not thereby become truth-apt, they merely become embedded non-assertions.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Blackburn's quasi-realism demonstrates that deontic operators like 'right' applied to non-cognitivist base states produce higher-order non-cognitivist states, not propositions.
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    • 2.Russell's consequentialist reduction of rightness to goodness-maximization inherits the semantic category of 'good', just as modal operators inherit the alethic category of their operands.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.For Russell, 'X is right' means X can be expected to lead to the best results — i.e., the greatest balance of good over evil.
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    • 2.For Russell, 'Y is good' is in the optative mood, amounting to the exclamation 'Would that everyone desired Y!'
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    • 3.If 'X is right' reduces to 'X leads to more of what [would that everyone desired!]', then the optative clause infects the entire sentence with its optative character.
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    Topics

    Philosophy of LanguageConsequentialism

    Connections

    1 topic

    Truth & Knowledge1 linked

    Related

    A sentence infected by an optative clause — 'X leads to more of what [would that...Blackburn's quasi-realism demonstrates that deontic operators like 'right' appli...For Russell, 'X is right' means X can be expected to lead to the best results — ...For Russell, 'Y is good' is in the optative mood, amounting to the exclamation '...
    +5 moreShow less
    Frege's embedding problem shows that non-cognitivist expressions in complex sent...Geach's own analysis of this problem concedes that unasserted optative clauses w...If 'X is right' reduces to 'X leads to more of what [would that everyone desired...Russell's consequentialist reduction of rightness to goodness-maximization inher...When 'good' functions as an optative operator, its compositional contribution to...

    Similar

    A sentence in the optative mood cannot be true or false76%Moral statements are really in the optative mood, expressing desires r...76%Judgments about what is right or what ought to be done can have a kind...75%Sentences genuinely in the optative mood, such as 'Oh to be in England...75%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: russell-moral
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    When it comes to means however, rational argument becomes a genuine possibility. It might seem otherwise since judgments about what is right or what ought to be done—which for Russell are essentially concerned with means—would appear to be as incapable of truth as judgments about what is good and bad. In Russell’s view, “the right act, in any given circumstances, is that which, on the data, will probably produce the greatest balance of good over evil” and the right rule or policy is likewise the
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit