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Ought of order
Finlay, Stephen
Finlay, Stephen
Author
Abstract
Stephen Finlay argues in this chapter that Angelika Kratzer’s influential introduction of an ordering source parameter into the semantics for natural language modals was a mistake, at least for English normative modals such as ‘ought’. A simpler semantics in a dyadic framework, motivated by the need for a satisfactory treatment of instrumental (or ‘anankastic’) conditionals, also provides the resources for a better accommodation of gradability and ‘weak necessity’, information-sensitivity, and conflicts, with three moves: (i) an end-relational analysis of normative modality, (ii) an analysis of ‘ought’ or ‘weak necessity’ in terms of most, and (iii) an appeal to the same pragmatic resources utilized by Kratzer. The chapter ends with metasemantic observations about what we should want from a semantics for ‘ought’.
Keywords
deontic modal, Angelika Kratzer, end-relational theory, weak necessity, probability, information sensitivity, anankastic conditional, hypothetical imperative
Date
2016
Type
Book chapter
Journal
Book
Deontic Modality
Volume
Issue
Page Range
169-199
Article Number
ACU Department
Dianoia Institute of Philosophy
Faculty of Theology and Philosophy
Faculty of Theology and Philosophy
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Event URL
Open Access Status
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File Access
Controlled