TY - JOUR
T1 - Constructivist Facts as the Bridge Between Is and Ought
AU - Hage, J.
N1 - Funding Information:
I want to thank the participants of the International Roundtables for the Semiotics of Law webinar on Global Semiotics, Intercultural Legal Space and the Interplay between ‘Facticity’ and ‘Normativity’ (16 September 2021), Henrique Marcos, Carsten Heidemann, Antonia Waltermann and Marco Brigaglia for their stimulating remarks and questions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - This article describes how the facts in social reality take an intermediate position between objective facts and purely subjective 'facts'. In turn, these social facts can be subdivided into constructivist and non-constructivist facts. The defining difference is that non-constructivist facts are completely determined by an approximate consensus between the members of a social group, while constructivist facts are founded in such a consensus but can nevertheless be questioned. Ought fact are such constructivist facts. Because they are founded in social reality, a naturalistic theory of ought facts is attractive. Because constructivist facts are always open to questioning, we can explain why the facts in social reality may found ought facts but are nevertheless not the final word about them.
AB - This article describes how the facts in social reality take an intermediate position between objective facts and purely subjective 'facts'. In turn, these social facts can be subdivided into constructivist and non-constructivist facts. The defining difference is that non-constructivist facts are completely determined by an approximate consensus between the members of a social group, while constructivist facts are founded in such a consensus but can nevertheless be questioned. Ought fact are such constructivist facts. Because they are founded in social reality, a naturalistic theory of ought facts is attractive. Because constructivist facts are always open to questioning, we can explain why the facts in social reality may found ought facts but are nevertheless not the final word about them.
KW - Constructivist facts
KW - Is
KW - Ought
KW - Social reality
U2 - 10.1007/s11196-022-09896-4
DO - 10.1007/s11196-022-09896-4
M3 - Article
SN - 0952-8059
VL - 36
SP - 53
EP - 81
JO - International Journal for the Semiotics of Law
JF - International Journal for the Semiotics of Law
IS - 1
ER -