Abstract
John Searle reflections on how to derive “Ought” from an “Is’” present a general theory of the sources of normativity within human civilizations. This chapter explores an alternative grounding of normativity on “laws of essence” (rather than on constitutive rules), a grounding that proceeds by addressing the crucial problem of how to locate essences (and thus values) in a world of facts. To that end, classical phenomenology is shown to be an ontology of concreteness, but this, far from removing it from the dimension of ideals and norms—even practical, ethical, and political ones—instead makes it the philosophy of ideals and relative “oughts” par excellence.
This chapter benefited from a fellowship at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study (France), with the financial support of the French State, programme “Investissements d’avenir”, managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-11-LABX-0027-01 Labex RFIEA+).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Baker, L. R. 2013. Naturalism and the First-Person Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
De Monticelli, R. 2013. “Constitution and Unity: Lynne Baker and the Unitarian Tradition.” The Monist 96 (1): 3–33.
———. 2020a. “Individuality, Concreteness, and the Gift of Bonds: Phenomenology and Analytic Metaphysics.” Phänomenologische Forschungen, 1, Phänomenologie und Metaphysik, eds. Thiemo Breyer, Julia Jansen, Inga Römer, in collaboration with M. Cavallaro: 5–24.
———. 2020b. “Wholes and Values: An Application of Giovanni Piana’s Phenomenological Structuralism.” Phenomenological Reviews. Special Issue 1, Giovanni Piana, eds. E. Caminada and M. Summa.
De Vecchi, F. 2012. “Ontologia regionale ‘sociale’ e realismo fenomenologico.” In Eidetica del diritto e ontologia sociale. Il realismo di Adolf Reinach, edited by F. De Vecchi, 11–37. Milan–Udine: Mimesis.
Gracia, J. E. 1983. “Individual as Instances.” The Review of Metaphysics 37: 37–60.
———. 1988. Individuality: An Essay on the Foundations of Metaphysics. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Husserl, E. (1900–1901) 2001. “On Wholes and Parts.” In Logical Investigations, Vol. II, by E. Husserl, 1–46. English translated by J. N. Findlay. London and New York: Routledge.
———. (1913) 1983. “Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy, I, Introduction to a Pure Phenomenology.” In Collected Works, Vol. II, by E. Husserl. English translated by F. Kersten. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
———. (1954) 1976. “Die Krisis der Europäischen Wissenschaften und die Transzendentale Phänomenologie.” In Husserliana, Vol. VI. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Köhler, W. (1938) 1966. The Place of Value in a World of Facts. New York: Mentor Books.
Reinach, A. B. P. (1913) 1989. Die apriorischen Grundlagen des bürgerlichen Rechtes. Edited by K. Schuhmann and B. Smith. Munich: Philosophia Verlag.
Searle, J. R. 1964. “How to Derive ‘Ought’ from ‘Is’.” The Philosophical Review 73: 43–58.
Smith, B., and W. Żełaniec. 2012. “Laws of Essence or Constitutive Rules?” In Eidetica del diritto e ontologia sociale. Il realismo di Adolf Reinach, edited by F. De Vecchi, 83–108. Milan–Udine: Mimesis.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
De Monticelli, R. (2021). Existence as a Source of Normativity: An Alternative to Searle’s View. In: Di Lucia, P., Fittipaldi, E. (eds) Revisiting Searle on Deriving "Ought" from "Is". Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54116-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54116-3_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-54115-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-54116-3
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)