Does Ought Imply Ought Ought?

Does ought imply can?

Most philosophers believe that a person can have an obligation only insofar as she is able to fulfil it, a principle generally referred to as "Ought Implies Can". Arguably, this principle reflects something basic about the ordinary concept of obligation. However, in a paper published recently in this journal, Wesley Buckwalter and John Turri presented evidence for the conclusion that ordinary p...

Does ‘Ought’ Imply ‘Can’? And Did Kant Think It Does?

‘ Ought ’ and ‘ Better ’

Sentences using ‘ought’ appear to have some kind of non-descriptive force (e.g. commending, guiding actions, committing the speaker), in which case it would seem that no ‘ought’ statement can follow logically from purely factual statements lacking such force. Yet from factual statements about slowness and liability to breakdown of alternative means of transport it seems possible validly to infe...

Ought, Agents, and Actions

According to a naïve view sometimes apparent in the writings of moral philosophers, ‘ought’ often expresses a relation between agents and actions – the relation that obtains between an agent and an action when that action is what that agent ought to do. It is not part of this naïve view that ‘ought’ always expresses this relation – on the contrary, adherents of the naïve view are happy to allow...

The Psychology of ‘Ought’

As educators, we would like to believe that we can influence the ethical growth of our students. If we are to do this, it seems worthwhile to first understand what ethical decision-making is and how it happens. For millennia, ethical decision-making has fallen within the domain of philosophy. However, recent evidence suggests that the average person does not consider ethical dilemmas in the abs...