I think stating premise 2 is a little odd. It is a bit deja “Tortoise and Achilles” all over again. If there’s a norm hiding around here, it’s an “ought” portrayed by the desire.
Second, conceptual analysis (or conceptual equivalence) is not necessary for reduction. Look at reduction in the sciences for examples.
Well, I’ll acknowledge that you could change premise 2 into an inference rule. But notice that you could change either premise 2—the pro-desire-satisfaction one and the pro-desire-frustration one—into an inference rule. Indeed, you could change any normative claim into an inference rule: you could change “people who want to have gay sex ought to go see a trained Baptist minister to get cured” into an inference rule, and then validly go from “I want to have gay sex” to “I ought to go see a trained Baptist minister to get cured”. So from the fact that premise 2 could be changed into an inference rule, I don’t think anything follows that might jeopardize its status as a full-blooded normative claim.
On the second point, I thought lukeprog was discussing direct conceptual reduction. But if he wants to provide hypothetical imperatives with a synthetic reduction, he’ll need a theory of reference capable of explaining why the normative claim turns out to make reference to (and have its truth-conditions provided by) simple causal facts. And on this score, I think hypothetical imperatives and categorical moral imperatives are on an equal footing: since reductionist moral realists have a hard time with synthetic reductions, I would expect reductionist ‘instrumental realists’ to have a hard time as well.
Perhaps so, but then the normativity stems from premise 1, leaving premise 2 as non-normative as ever. But the question is whether premise 2 could be a plausible reduction basis for normative claims.
I think stating premise 2 is a little odd. It is a bit deja “Tortoise and Achilles” all over again. If there’s a norm hiding around here, it’s an “ought” portrayed by the desire.
Second, conceptual analysis (or conceptual equivalence) is not necessary for reduction. Look at reduction in the sciences for examples.
Well, I’ll acknowledge that you could change premise 2 into an inference rule. But notice that you could change either premise 2—the pro-desire-satisfaction one and the pro-desire-frustration one—into an inference rule. Indeed, you could change any normative claim into an inference rule: you could change “people who want to have gay sex ought to go see a trained Baptist minister to get cured” into an inference rule, and then validly go from “I want to have gay sex” to “I ought to go see a trained Baptist minister to get cured”. So from the fact that premise 2 could be changed into an inference rule, I don’t think anything follows that might jeopardize its status as a full-blooded normative claim.
On the second point, I thought lukeprog was discussing direct conceptual reduction. But if he wants to provide hypothetical imperatives with a synthetic reduction, he’ll need a theory of reference capable of explaining why the normative claim turns out to make reference to (and have its truth-conditions provided by) simple causal facts. And on this score, I think hypothetical imperatives and categorical moral imperatives are on an equal footing: since reductionist moral realists have a hard time with synthetic reductions, I would expect reductionist ‘instrumental realists’ to have a hard time as well.
For what it’s worth, I think what’s really being inferred by the advice-giver is:
1 Granting your (advisee’s) starting point, you ought to lose weight.
2 Less calorie consumption and more calorie burning leads to weight loss.
3 Therefore you ought to consume less and burn more calories.
The advisee’s desire portrays the starting-point as a truth.
Perhaps so, but then the normativity stems from premise 1, leaving premise 2 as non-normative as ever. But the question is whether premise 2 could be a plausible reduction basis for normative claims.