David Hume’s is-ought problem

David Hume raised the is–ought problem in his Treatise of Human Nature.

The is–ought problem, as articulated by the Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume (1711–76), states that many writers make claims about what ought to be, based on statements about what is. Hume found that there seems to be a significant difference between positive statements (about what is) and prescriptive or normative statements (about what ought to be), and that it is not obvious how one can coherently move from descriptive statements to prescriptive ones. The is–ought problem is also known as Hume’s lawHume’s guillotine or fact–value gap.

A similar view is defended by G. E. Moore‘s open-question argument, intended to refute any identification of moral properties with natural properties. This so-called naturalistic fallacy stands in contrast to the views of ethical naturalists.

More at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is%E2%80%93ought_problem

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