Hume, Is->Ought, Open Questions ...

Hume's paragraph on deriving ought from is suppresses the methodological rule by which he selects 'is' statements.

This rule is, of course, normative - and so Hume cannot allow it to be deduced from factual statements. It can, however, be induced - as his method for selecting facts.

This leaves him with a dilemma if asked to respond to an explicit statement of the rule: He can either (a) deny the validity of the rule (which undermines his is-ought insight) or he can (b) accept it as implied by his fact selection process, if not by the 'facts' that he selects. In the second case, the selection method must either include or imply the rule 'no value statement can be a fact', rendering the argument circular.

If the rule depends on the fact selection process, it doesn't depend on the facts. Does this leave the argument intact (though weakened by circularity)? The scope of Hume's 'facts' is narrow: arguably only the direct evidence on which natural science depends. Most 'social facts' include value statements or value commitments, from which 'oughts' can be deduced (as in Searle's argument).