I begin here in §1 with some prima facie linguistic difficulties had by two prominent metaethical accounts of the meaning of normative terms – basically the accounts implicit in realism and expressivism – when these are applied in a straightforward albeit naïve way to the word ‘ought’. In §2, I explain what I take to be the standard framework in theoretical semantics for accounting for the sema...

1. The parameter glut In a well known paper written a quarter century ago, cosmology was described as a search for two numbers (Sandage 1970). As those of you who have attended any of the parallel sessions of Symposium 167 surely appreciate , today's cosmologists nd more than just two numbers interesting. It is likewise clear from the present symposium that the number of interesting parameters ...

As intuitive as OIC might seem, we should acknowledge that the arguments offered in its support often do not warrant the sort of confidence many of us have in the principle. For example, friends of OIC often say that the principle is needed to explain certain linguistic behaviors. 3 Suppose Smith sees Jones sitting in a chair and Jones tells Smith that he has just been robbed. 'You ought to cal...