simonsays Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 I have been telling a friend about Objectivism over the past few days and one of the issues he strongly disagreed with was the "is ought" problem. I do not know much about philosophy and therefore found it difficult to argue that you can derive an ought from an is. Can you guys help me out? Whats the best way to concisely show that you can derive an ought from an is? After you guys have posted your responses, I will come back and tell you his responses. The purpose of this is that I am finding an immensely valuable exchange of ideas when debating with my friend, and even though he is a dirty Marxist (lol), I find I am learning more about Objectivism when debating him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y_feldblum Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 The best thing is to learn how to prove to yourself why the facts of reality demand that one act in certain, knowable ways and not in others. Ayn Rand's basic proof that facts imply values can be found in "The Objectivist Ethics" (in The Virtue of Selfishness). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fountainhead Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 (edited) I do not know much about philosophy and therefore found it difficult to argue that you can derive an ought from an is. Before you can debate with your friend, I think its reallly important that you first get a firm grasp of the relationship of is and ought relationship and then debate with your friend, if you want to. Right now you can get the fancy quotes from this forum and tell them to your friend, but you will end up confusing yourself, instead of clearing your understanding of Objectivism. You can get information about "is ought" from Leonard Peikoff's essay on Fact and Value. Here's the link :http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_fv BTW, this is my first reply on this forum Edited December 4, 2006 by The Fountainhead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonsays Posted December 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 Thanks for the sources, much appreciated. Incidentally, I was wondering whether the title of this thread "Debating a friend" is correct grammatically according to American English? I am English and someone told me that Americans don't always use prepositions. So whereas a Brit would always say "Write to me", an American could say "Write me". Similarly, I would normally say "Debating with a friend" but decided, because this is an American forum, to try out "Debating a friend". Does this make sense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y_feldblum Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 Both are correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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