On The Ethics Of Hume's Answer

In the history of modern western philosophy, the fact-value question derives from the "is"-"ought to" question that Hume raised in his famous book A Treatise of Human Nature, which is also known as "Hume problem". In this book, Hume draws a clear distinction between fact and value, and believes that there was no logical connection between "is" and "ought to". The sentence which uses "is" as its copulative verb is a statement of fact, that is to say, it only can be distinguished as true or false. Yet the "ought to" statement is an expression of value, it conveys a kind of good or evil judgment. Hence, Hume ascribes the former one to knowledge, which can be discovered and discerned through reason, while the latter to the emotion, only to be inspired and created through human taste. Therefore, a fact statement can not be deduced from a value statement, and the reverse is also true. That is to say, a sentence which uses "ought to" as its copulative verb can not be deduced from a sentence which uses "is" as its copulative verb.In 1903, Moore published his book Principia Ethica, which marks the beginning of meta-ethics, and the central issue of the arguments of which is no more than the relationship between fact and value. With the development of meta-ethics, the distinction between fact and value has become an increasingly exposing basic theory point of view. Moore on behalf of the intuitionists, Stevenson on behalf of the emotionalists and Hare who advocates prescriptivism are all trying to show their views of this issue, which also develops and deepens "Hume problem". Through propounding the theory that "good" can not be defined and the theory of "naturalistic fallacy", together with the open question test, Moore deepens the influence of "Hume problem". In his opinion, it is the intuition that determines whether the value judgments can be derived from the fact statements or not. Moore thought that the kingdom of value and the world of fact are totally different worlds. The early emotionalists deduced a moral sentimental conclusion that "Ethics is the expression of emotion, rather than scientific facts" from logical analysis of ethics language. Stevenson clarifies some vague statements the emotionalists raised, he also amend some of the ideas that Ayer, Carnap and some other people hold, so as to make the theory of emotionalism tend to be moderate. We may say that, Stevenson sees more clearly on the complexity and flexibility of language, and also the subtle relations between value and fact. He did also try to maintain a balance between the two, but eventually he believed that there were fundamental differences between value judgment and fact statement, the former one could not be deduced from the latter. Stevenson actually further developed the theory of Hume; however his excessive paranoia standpoint on the non-cognitive almost put ethics into a non-scientific danger, which directly undermineds the scientific foundation of real ethics; thus caused the reactionary doctrine of moral emotions represented by Hare. Hare objects the modern irrationalism of meta-ethics, particularly on the extreme emotionalism of Stevenson. Hare holds that moral language is a kind of prescriptive language but not expression of personal feeling, desire, favor or attitudes. From his standpoint, moral judgments can not be a random expression of personal feelings; moral principles must be universal and prescriptive. Hare's ethical theory has made a significant contribution to bridge the gap between fact and value. Although Hare has begun the reversion of meta-ethics to normative ethics, his constructive close-up ideas on the fact and value does not go beyond the scope of meta-ethics, the binary division of fact and value is still there, and all these are due to the limitation of the age but not the moral philosopher of meta-ethics themselves.In our time, the relationship between fact and value is definitely not an issue in the ivory tower; we may say that it is really a vital issue, not only relating to the value of the scientific status of moral philosophy, but also concerning of how can people live and how to help them make right judgment and choice. In a word, to rightly solve the fact-value problem that Hume problem reveals has a basic and important meaning both for the theoretic study and the practical life of human value.