The Meaning of 'Ought': Beyond Descriptivism and Expressivism in Metaethics
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Author Description
The word 'ought' is one of the core normative terms, but it is also a modal word. In this book Matthew Chrisman develops a careful account of the semantics of 'ought' as a modal operator, and uses this to motivate a novel inferentialist account of why ought-sentences have the meaning that they have. This is a metanormative account that agrees with traditional descriptivist theories in metaethics that specifying the truth-conditions of normative sentences is a central part of the explanation of their meaning. But Chrisman argues that this leaves important metasemantic questions about what it is in virtue of which ought-sentences have the meanings that they have unanswered. His appeal to inferentialism aims to provide a viable anti-descriptivist but also anti-expressivist answer to these questions.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This book investigates the semantic and metasemantic foundations of the word 'ought' to resolve the tension between descriptivist and expressivist metaethical frameworks. Matthew Chrisman, a scholar in moral philosophy, utilizes a rigorous linguistic and philosophical approach to analyze 'ought' as a modal operator. By proposing an inferentialist account, he seeks to explain how normative sentences derive their meaning without relying solely on traditional truth-conditional models or expressivist alternatives. The work aims to restructure the theoretical landscape of contemporary metaethics by addressing the underlying mechanisms of normative language.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- A detailed semantic analysis of 'ought' as a modal operator within normative discourse.
- An inferentialist framework designed to explain the metasemantic origins of normative meaning.
- A critical evaluation of traditional descriptivist and expressivist metaethical theories.
- A synthesis of broad philosophical literature spanning contemporary and historical perspectives on moral language.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Experts in the field recognize this work as a significant and ambitious contribution to metaethics that challenges established conceptual frameworks. Readers frequently note the high level of scholarly density and the sophisticated integration of linguistic and philosophical methodologies throughout the text.
Page Count:
280
Publication Date:
2015-10-23
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0199363005
ISBN-13:
9780199363001
Philosophy
Semantics
Ethics
Linguistics
Metaethics
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