The Cage: Must, Should, and Ought from Is

Contents

Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One. Categorial Form 9 1. Evidence of Categorial Form 10 2. The Method for Discovering Categorial Form 11 3. Kantian Objections 12 4. Some Possible Categorial Forms 14 5. Antecedent Formulations 19 6. Practical Applications 19 7. Which Is the Better Hypothesis? 21 Chapter Two. Nature 25 1. Logic 26 2. Possible and Actual Worlds 31 3. The Actual World: Nature 34 A. Spacetime 35 B. Causality and Natural Laws 35 C. Dispositions 41 D. Systems 50 E. The Whole 55 4. Testability 55 5. Humean Objections 57 6. Natural Norms 60 vii Chapter Three. Practical Norms 61 1. How are Systems Formed and Stabilized? 61 2. Practical Imperatives 63 3. Ends and Aims 67 4. Consequential and Instrumental Values versus Intrinsic Values 70 5. From Is to Must, Should, or Ought 72 Chapter Four. Moral Norms 73 1. Semantic Preliminaries 74 2. The Context of Morality 77 3. Ontological Assumptions 80 4. Signature Values 89 5. Moral Psychology 94 6. Thick Moral Concepts: The Cognitive and Emotive Aspects of Moral Norms 99 7. Duties to Systems, Their Members, and Others 105 8. Moral Flashpoints 126 9. From Facts to Norms 139 10. Opposed Perspectives: Norms Founded in Material Systems or Rational Ideals 150 11. Norms of Several Kinds 161 12. Rights 165 13. Layered Publics 166 14. Truth and Error 171 15. Should and Ought from Is 174 16. Support from Principal Moral Theorists 186 17. Resolving the Diversity of Moral Theories 190 Chapter Five. Aesthetic Norms 201 1. The Conditions for Aesthetic Value in Created Works 202 2. Objections 209 3. Natural Beauty 213 4. Virtual Form 215 5. Must, Should, and Ought in the Context of Is 217 viii THE CAGE Chapter Six. Cultural Variation 221 1. Generic Needs and Their Determinate Expressions 221 2. Aristotelian and Nietzschean Problems 226 3. Change 228 Chapter Seven. Freedom 231 1. Positive and Negative Freedom 231 2. Alternative Ontologies 233 3. Free Will 236 4. Positive Freedom: Character and Opportunity 240 5. Pathologies of Freedom 245 6. Is Freedom Good-in-Itself? 263 Conclusion 265 Notes 269 Index 287 Contents ix ...