Just plain "ought''

The Journal of Ethics 5 (4):269-291 (2001)
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Abstract

Is there any sense to the idea of an ``ought''''that is not relative to any particularnormative framework? This ``ought'''' would not bea moral, prudential, legal, aesthetic, orreligious ``ought,'''' but rather an unqualified or just plain ``ought.'''' Thispaper (i) argues for the existence andusefulness of just plain ``ought''''; (ii) locatesthe concept of just plain ``ought'''' within amajor strand in the history of ethics (namely,the perennial attempt to demonstrate thatmorality and prudence are in harmony); and(iii) challenges David Copp''s recent attempt toshow that in fact there is no such thing asjust plain ``ought.'''' A theory of just plain``ought'''' emerges along the way.

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Owen McLeod
Lafayette College

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Weighing epistemic and practical reasons for belief.Christopher Howard - 2020 - Philosophical Studies 177 (8):2227-2243.
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Are Moral Reasons Morally Overriding?Douglas W. Portmore - 2008 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 11 (4):369-388.

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References found in this work

Moral overridingness and moral theory.Sarah Stroud - 1998 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 79 (2):170–189.
The Reconciliation Project.Gregory Kavka - 1984 - In David Copp & David Zimmerman (eds.), Morality, Reason and Truth. Totowa, NJ: pp. 297-319.
Morality and self-interest.James P. Sterba - 1999 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 59 (2):525-531.

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