Overview

Can ""ought"" be derived from ""is""? This text presents a systematic investigation of this time-honoured philosophical problem by means of modern alethic-deontic predicate logic. Two comprehensive introductory chapters into the philosophical and logical foundations make the text understandable for non-logicians, ethicists, social scientists and students of philosophy. New in this study are two topics: relevance and metalogical generality. It turns out that ""is-ought"" inferences indeed exist, but they are all irrelevant in a precise logical sense. New proof techniques allow the establishment of this result for very broad classes of logics. A profound philosophical investigation of the question of analytical or strongly intersubjective is-ought bridge principles supplements the logical study. The final results imply incisive limitations for the justifiability of ethics as opposed to empirical science.

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Reviews

... anyone interested in deontic logic should benefit from the insights of this book. ... the work is clearly written and excellently edited.' History and Philosophy of Logic, 19 (1998)

'... anyone interested in deontic logic should benefit from the insights of this book. ... the work is clearly written and excellently edited.' History and Philosophy of Logic, 19 (1998)

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