# Prescriptivity

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'''Prescriptivity''' is a term used in [meta-ethics](/source/meta-ethics) to state that when an evaluative judgment or decision is made it must either prescribe or condemn. The word implies that these judgments (and the prescription and condemnation) logically commit us to certain ways of living. Contrary to popular opinion, prescriptivity does not just describe or categorize decisions - for example, "you ought to do this" (used evaluatively) [logically entails](/source/logical_consequence) the imperative "do this."

==Universal Prescriptivism==
Prescriptivity is one of the five (prescriptivity, universalizability, overridingness, publicity, and practicability) axioms of Formal [Ethics](/source/Ethics).{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}}  When combined with Universalizability, prescriptivity becomes [Universal prescriptivism](/source/Universal_prescriptivism). Universal prescriptivism combines these two methods of thinking, combining evaluative judgments (which commit us to making similar judgments about similar cases) and prescription and condemnation when the judgment is at last made. This enables us to think in a very powerful and [rational](/source/Rationality) way about ethical and moral issues.

==See also==
* [R. M. Hare](/source/R._M._Hare)

== References ==
{{reflist}}
* {{cite book | last1 = P. Pojman | first1 = Louis | authorlink1 = Louis Pojman | title = Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong | publisher = Wadsworth Publishing | year = 1998 | isbn = 978-0-534-61936-7}}
* {{cite book | last1 = Thomas | first1 = Geoffrey | title = An Introduction to Ethics: Five Central Problems of Moral Judgement | chapter = Prescriptivity: the weakness of will | publisher = [Hackett Publishing Company](/source/Hackett_Publishing_Company) | date = June 1993 | pages = 37 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=e43PBOoq0NUC&q=prescriptivity&pg=PA37 | accessdate = 2011-01-09 | isbn = 978-0-87220-184-2}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060904125739/http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/fe/fe-3--00.htm Universal axioms]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060902202629/http://www.jcu.edu/Philosophy/gensler/ms/hare--00.htm R.M. Hare's Philosophy]

Category:Metaethics
Category:Concepts in ethics
Category:Concepts in logic

{{ethics-stub}}

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