appetites for oughty things

Philosophers can be funny too:

2009 dialectica essay prize (£500): ‘ought’
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‘Ought’ is one of the most used words in philosophy. But what does it mean? There are oughts to do, oughts to be, ought to F of all sorts.

There is the ethical ought, the epistemic ought, the semantic ought, and many others. What do they have in common? Or are there as many oughts as there are reasons and stars in the sky? Can deontic logic tell us something about them? What are their ties to reasons, values, norms? Can we derive ‘ought’ from ‘is’? Are there ought facts?

We invite philosophers with all kinds of appetites for oughty things to submit papers for the dialectica prize 2009. The prize winning author will receive £500. Submissions to the prize will also be considered independent submissions to the journal and will be blindly refereed.

Please send submissions to [email protected] by 1st November 2009.