Norms, Semantics and Ontology
| Autor | Wagner de Campos Sanz |
| Ocupação do Autor | Post-graduation Program in Philosophy, Philosophy Faculty, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Brazil |
| Páginas | 2495-2506 |
Working Group: eory of Law • 2495
Norms, Semantics and Ontology
Wagner de Campos Sanz, PhD1
Abstract: Standard deontic logic has assumed that a norm is a proposition ob-
tained by applying a deontic operator obligatory forbidden permissible
expression of an “ought to be” – to another proposition. This analysis assumes
that norms are propositions expressing duties, or “ought to be” propositions.
Hintikka is a former proponent of the idea.
Norms as “ought to be” propositions is not a particular conception
of XXth century logicians. Philosophers like Hume and law philosophers like
Kelsen, although not sharing the same point of view, also understood that the
expression of a duty is essentially the expression of an “ought”. Both have
stressed the distinction between “is” and “ought”. Most of the interpretations
understood such contraposition as one between “to be” and “ought to be”.
From the point of view of formal Kripke semantics ought to be
propositions are interpreted in a way that depends of a framework of possible
worlds in which some of them are ideal worlds. In ideal worlds, norms are ide-
allyvalidiealwaysfullledThisconceptisclosetoutopiaTheapplicability
of Kripke semantics to deontic logic thus requires models with a distinguished
non-empty set of possible worlds, the ideal worlds.
However, it is questionable that norms are expressions of “ought to
be’s”. We claim that Castaneda – mainly in Thinking and Doing – has the mer-
it of defending an alternative analysis of duties in terms of “ought to do” in a
broad philosophical analysis of practical reason. We are going to consider it in
what follows.
Keywords: ought to do, ought to be, norm, semantics, deontic logic, philosophy
of law, philosophy of language, practical philosophy
1. Introduction
It seems to be a common feature of human cultures the concept,
orideaofanidealworldItmaybeaworldtobeaainedbymeansof
1
Post-graduation Program in Philosophy, Philosophy Faculty, Universidade Federal de
Goiás, Brazil. E-mail: wsanz@uol.com.br
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