The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Are all normative judgments desire-like?

Are all normative judgments desire-like?
Are all normative judgments desire-like?
In this paper I first argue against one attractive formulation of the motivation argument, and against one attractive formulation of non-cognitivism. I do so by example: I suggest that other-regarding normative judgements do not seem to have motivational powers and do not seem to be desires. After defending these two claims, I argue that other views can accommodate the motivational role of normative judgement without facing this objection. For example, desire-as-belief theories do so, since such theories only say that some normative judgements constitute desires, not that all such judgements do so. (I also briefly present similar reasoning in favour of the claim that desire-as-belief is superior to non-cognitivism with respect to the Frege-Geach objection.) In short, I argue that if we are seeking a theory that explains the motivational role of normative judgement, some theories are better than others insofar as they do so without committing to the claim that all normative judgements play such a motivational role.
1559-3061
29-55
Gregory, Alexander
4f392d61-1825-4ee5-bc21-18922c89d80f
Gregory, Alexander
4f392d61-1825-4ee5-bc21-18922c89d80f

Gregory, Alexander (2017) Are all normative judgments desire-like? Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy, 12 (1), 29-55. (doi:10.26556/jesp.v12i1.212).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In this paper I first argue against one attractive formulation of the motivation argument, and against one attractive formulation of non-cognitivism. I do so by example: I suggest that other-regarding normative judgements do not seem to have motivational powers and do not seem to be desires. After defending these two claims, I argue that other views can accommodate the motivational role of normative judgement without facing this objection. For example, desire-as-belief theories do so, since such theories only say that some normative judgements constitute desires, not that all such judgements do so. (I also briefly present similar reasoning in favour of the claim that desire-as-belief is superior to non-cognitivism with respect to the Frege-Geach objection.) In short, I argue that if we are seeking a theory that explains the motivational role of normative judgement, some theories are better than others insofar as they do so without committing to the claim that all normative judgements play such a motivational role.

Text
are all normative judgements desires for JESP - Accepted Manuscript
Download (110kB)
Text
212-Article Text-384-1-10-20170929 - Version of Record
Download (256kB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 27 June 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 28 September 2017
Published date: September 2017

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 413377
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/413377
ISSN: 1559-3061
PURE UUID: 78b3bec6-d227-462c-bc80-80b98f141587
ORCID for Alexander Gregory: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2747-003X

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 23 Aug 2017 16:31
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:16

Export record

Altmetrics

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×