BBC
A History of Ideas: The Is/Ought Problem
Harry Shearer on the Is/Ought Problem
Are you ready for a brush with Hume’s Guillotine? This animation looks at the problem of trying to reason from facts about the way the world is to judgements about values based on those facts. Can we really say we ought to do something simply because it reflects a state of affairs in the world? This is/ought gap (AKA ‘Hume’s Guillotine’) has perplexed thinkers for centuries. Just don’t lose your head trying to think about it.
Want to hear more on this topic?
Here’s the whole episode from A History of Ideas – Philosopher Angie Hobbs on the value of Conscience.
In this action packed animation, lives are saved and expensive shoes ruined to answer the question: Is there an important difference between someone drowning in front of you and someone dying in a far off land?
Is it right to tell a lie in order to save your friend from an axe wielding, homicidal maniac? Emmanuel Kant said ‘No’.
Is it right to intervene and sacrifice one person to save five? In this animation of a classic thought problem, we find that the answer is fraught with difficulty.
Are you ready for a brush with Hume’s Guillotine? This animation looks at the problem of trying to reason from facts about the way the world is to judgements about values based on those facts.