The phenomenological derivation of oughts and shalls from ises or why it is right to take the stairs

Lester Embree

pp. 83-88

in: Olav K. Wiegand, Robert J. Dostal, Lester Embree, Joseph Kockelmans, Mohanty (eds), Phenomenology on Kant, German idealism, hermeneutics and logic, Berlin, Springer, 2000

Abstract

The impossibility of logically deriving "oughts," i. e., norms or, better, evaluational propositions, from "ises," i. e., theoretical or, better, cognitional propositions, is now widely accepted. That a great deal of effort has been devoted to this question of derivation nevertheless suggests that something has been dimly glimpsed. Perhaps the derivability is other than directly logical.