“Ought Implies Can,” Framing Effects, and “Empirical Refutations”

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the current debate about the status of the "Ought Implies Can" (OIC) principle and the growing body of empirical evidence that undermines it.We report the results of an experimental study which show that people judge that agents ought to perform an action even when they also judge that those agents cannot do it and that such "ought" judgments exhibit an actor-observer effect. Because of this actor-observer effect on "ought" judgments and the Duhem-Quine thesis, talk of an "empirical refutation" of OIC is empirically and methodologically unwarranted. What the empirical fact that people attribute moral obligations to unable agents shows is that OIC is not intuitive, not that OIC has been refuted.

Recent experimental work on “ought” implies “can”

“…In one set of vignettes, participants were then asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with, for instance, the following statements: “Professor Smith can keep his office appointment with Sid” and “Professor Smith ought to keep his office appointment with Sid.” Generally, participants judged both that Professor Smith ought to keep his appointment and that Professor Smith cannot keep his appointment. Because (a) people's judgments that the agent ought to keep his promise were not correlated with their judgments about the agent's ability in any of the vignettes and (b) judgments that the agent ought to act were made in tandem with judgments that the agent cannot act, the study provides evidence against the claim that “ought” presupposes “can” (Kissinger‐Knox, Aragon, & Mizrahi, ; Mizrahi, ).…”

“…Other critics argue that because ordinary judgments are flawed, they do not affect OIC. Kissinger‐Knox et al () claim that empirical studies can, at most, show that OIC is unintuitive. Yet, they argue, empirical studies cannot refute OIC.…”

Direct and derivative moral responsibility: An overlooked distinction in experimental philosophy

“…Variations of the vignettes discussed in this paper and in Turri (2017) feature also in other publications that are often cited in the experimental literature such as (Turri, 2017b), (Buckwalter & Turri, 2015) cited 38 times), (Henne et al, 2016), cited 22 times) and (Chituc et al, 2016) cited 41 times). While many authors have been critical about this evidence, it yet has a significant impact on the philosophical debate (Kissinger-Knox et al, 2018;Kurthy et al, 2017;Streumer, 2003;Willemsen & Wiegmann, 2017). In addition, most experimental studies rely on experimental stimuli that resemble the two vignettes in that an agent is described as determined in conducting an acting in a specific situation (Buckwalter, 2017;Miller & Feltz, 2011;Murray & Lombrozo, 2017;Willemsen, 2018Willemsen, , 2020Woolfolk et al, 2006).…”

Recent Experimental Work on ‘Ought’ Implies ‘Can’

“…Generally, participants judged both that Professor Smith ought to keep his appointment and that Professor Smith cannot keep his appointment. Because (1) people's judgments that the agent ought to keep his promise were not correlated with their judgments about the agent's ability in any of the vignettes and(2) judgments that the agent ought to act were made in tandem with judgments that the agent cannot act, the study provides evidence against the claim that 'ought' presupposes 'can' (Mizrahi, 2015a;Kissinger-Knox, Aragon, & Mizrahi, 2017).…”