Zimmerman’s ‘is-is’: A schizophrenic monism

Abstract

In a recent paper¹ Mr Zimmerman proposes that we can do without ‘ought’ statements. He maintains that if we do so, we will no longer need to worry about the is-ought barrier. There will be no need to wonder how we can infer what we ought to do or what ought to be from what is, since ‘ought’ will no longer appear in our language. Furthermore, we can get on with the important task of promotng democracy, and generally making the world a better place, instead of spending our time arguing over questions of theoretical ethics which need not concern us.