Isn’t the problem that ought already has a definition?
“ought” is defined as “that stuff that you should do”
This definition sounds circular because it is. I can’t physically point to an ought like I can an apple, but “ought” is a concept all human beings have, separate from learning language.
“is” is actually another example of this.
So the reason you can’t define ought is the same reason that you can’t define an apple as those red roundish things and then define an apple as a being capable of flight.
We can define new words, like Hume-ought, Utilitarian-ought, Eliezer-ought, based on what various people or schools of thought say those words mean. But “ought=Hume-ought” or whatever is not a definition, it’s a statement of moral fact, and you can’t prove it unless you take a statement of moral fact as an assumption.
Isn’t the problem that ought already has a definition?
“ought” is defined as “that stuff that you should do”
In a sense, that is exactly the point that Moore is making with the “open question” argument.
But the situation is a bit more complicated. The stuff you should do can be further broken down into “stuff you should do for your own sake” and “stuff you should for moral reasons”. I.e. “ought” splits into two words—a practical-ought and a moral-ought.
Now, one way of looking at what Hume did is to say that he simply defined moral-ought as practical ought. A dubious procedure, as you point out. But another way of looking at what he did is that he analyzed the concept of ‘moral-ought’ and discovered a piece of it that seems to have been misclassified. That piece really should be classified as a variety of ‘practical-ought’. And then, having gotten away with it once, he goes on to do it again and again until there is nothing left of independent ‘moral-ought’. Dissolved away. What’s more, if you are not strongly pre-committed to defending the notion of an independent moral ‘ought’, the argument can be rather convincing.
And as a supplementary incentive, notice that by dissolving and relocating the moral ‘ought’ in this way, Hume has solved the second key question about morality: “Now that I know how I morally ought to behave, what reason do I have to behave as I morally ought to behave? Hume’s answer: “Because ‘moral ought’ is just a special case of ‘practical ought’.
And as a supplementary incentive, notice that by dissolving and relocating the moral ‘ought’ in this way, Hume has solved the second key question about morality: “Now that I know how I morally ought to behave, what reason do I have to behave as I morally ought to behave? Hume’s answer: “Because ‘moral ought’ is just a special case of ‘practical ought’.
Despite being a fellow-traveler in these areas, I had no idea Hume actually laid out all these pieces. I’ll have to go read some more Hume. I tend to defend it as straightforward application of Sidgwick’s definition of ethics coupled with the actual English meaning of ‘should’, but clearly a good argument preceding that by a century or two would be even better.
And, indeed, to drop all figurative expression, what hopes can we ever have of engaging mankind to a practice, which we confess full of austerity and rigour? Or what theory of morals can ever serve any useful purpose, unless it can show, by a particular detail, that all the duties, which it recommends, are also the true interest of each individual? The peculiar advantage of the foregoing system seems to be, that it furnishes proper mediums for that purpose.
Isn’t the problem that ought already has a definition?
“ought” is defined as “that stuff that you should do”
This definition sounds circular because it is. I can’t physically point to an ought like I can an apple, but “ought” is a concept all human beings have, separate from learning language.
“is” is actually another example of this.
So the reason you can’t define ought is the same reason that you can’t define an apple as those red roundish things and then define an apple as a being capable of flight.
We can define new words, like Hume-ought, Utilitarian-ought, Eliezer-ought, based on what various people or schools of thought say those words mean. But “ought=Hume-ought” or whatever is not a definition, it’s a statement of moral fact, and you can’t prove it unless you take a statement of moral fact as an assumption.
In a sense, that is exactly the point that Moore is making with the “open question” argument.
But the situation is a bit more complicated. The stuff you should do can be further broken down into “stuff you should do for your own sake” and “stuff you should for moral reasons”. I.e. “ought” splits into two words—a practical-ought and a moral-ought.
Now, one way of looking at what Hume did is to say that he simply defined moral-ought as practical ought. A dubious procedure, as you point out. But another way of looking at what he did is that he analyzed the concept of ‘moral-ought’ and discovered a piece of it that seems to have been misclassified. That piece really should be classified as a variety of ‘practical-ought’. And then, having gotten away with it once, he goes on to do it again and again until there is nothing left of independent ‘moral-ought’. Dissolved away. What’s more, if you are not strongly pre-committed to defending the notion of an independent moral ‘ought’, the argument can be rather convincing.
And as a supplementary incentive, notice that by dissolving and relocating the moral ‘ought’ in this way, Hume has solved the second key question about morality: “Now that I know how I morally ought to behave, what reason do I have to behave as I morally ought to behave? Hume’s answer: “Because ‘moral ought’ is just a special case of ‘practical ought’.
Despite being a fellow-traveler in these areas, I had no idea Hume actually laid out all these pieces. I’ll have to go read some more Hume. I tend to defend it as straightforward application of Sidgwick’s definition of ethics coupled with the actual English meaning of ‘should’, but clearly a good argument preceding that by a century or two would be even better.
Try this