Thought: A Journal of Philosophy

Volume 9, Issue 2, June 2020

Ruling out solutions to Prior’s dilemma for Hume’s law

This article takes a critical look at four instances of a similar idea: that the normativity of a sentence is a matter of what it rules out semantically. These views aim to give both stand-alone conceptions of normativity and solutions to a dilemma that A. N. Prior raised against Hume's no ought from is doctrine. First, I argue that acknowledged adequacy problems with the approach have not been sufficiently explained away. Second, I raise some new concerns, which create additional barriers to defending Hume using the approach. To conclude, I suggest an alternative way of understanding Hume's doctrine that avoids the need for a sentence-level account, and opens up avenues for preserving the insight behind the ruling-out approach.