essay "Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?"
E695574
"Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?" is a seminal essay by H. A. Prichard that challenges the foundations of moral philosophy by arguing that attempts to derive moral obligation from theoretical reasoning are fundamentally misguided.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake? | 1 |
| essay "Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?" canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7799977 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: essay "Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?" Context triple: [H. A. Prichard, knownFor, essay "Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?"]
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A.
A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy
A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy is an 18th-century ethical treatise by Francis Hutcheson that presents a systematic account of human nature, virtue, and moral judgment grounded in the idea of a moral sense.
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B.
Outlines of Moral Philosophy
Outlines of Moral Philosophy is a foundational 18th-century work in moral philosophy by Scottish Enlightenment thinker Dugald Stewart, offering a systematic account of ethics, human nature, and moral reasoning.
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C.
Institutes of Moral Philosophy
Institutes of Moral Philosophy is an 18th-century treatise by Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam Ferguson that systematically explores ethics, human nature, and the principles of moral judgment.
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D.
Lectures on Moral Philosophy
Lectures on Moral Philosophy is a collection of influential 18th-century ethical and philosophical teachings by Scottish-American Presbyterian minister and educator John Witherspoon, reflecting his role in shaping early American moral and political thought.
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E.
Review of the Principal Questions in Morals
Review of the Principal Questions in Morals is an 18th-century philosophical treatise by Richard Price that defends rationalist ethics and the objectivity of moral truths.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: essay "Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?" Target entity description: "Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?" is a seminal essay by H. A. Prichard that challenges the foundations of moral philosophy by arguing that attempts to derive moral obligation from theoretical reasoning are fundamentally misguided.
-
A.
A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy
A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy is an 18th-century ethical treatise by Francis Hutcheson that presents a systematic account of human nature, virtue, and moral judgment grounded in the idea of a moral sense.
-
B.
Outlines of Moral Philosophy
Outlines of Moral Philosophy is a foundational 18th-century work in moral philosophy by Scottish Enlightenment thinker Dugald Stewart, offering a systematic account of ethics, human nature, and moral reasoning.
-
C.
Institutes of Moral Philosophy
Institutes of Moral Philosophy is an 18th-century treatise by Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam Ferguson that systematically explores ethics, human nature, and the principles of moral judgment.
-
D.
Lectures on Moral Philosophy
Lectures on Moral Philosophy is a collection of influential 18th-century ethical and philosophical teachings by Scottish-American Presbyterian minister and educator John Witherspoon, reflecting his role in shaping early American moral and political thought.
-
E.
Review of the Principal Questions in Morals
Review of the Principal Questions in Morals is an 18th-century philosophical treatise by Richard Price that defends rationalist ethics and the objectivity of moral truths.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
moral philosophy essay
ⓘ
philosophical essay ⓘ |
| author |
H. A. Prichard
ⓘ
Harold Arthur Prichard ⓘ
linked to:
H. A. Prichard
|
| conclusion |
moral philosophy should clarify, not justify, our recognition of duties
ⓘ
our sense of obligation is basic and not derivable from non-moral premises ⓘ |
| criticizes |
the attempt to justify our sense of duty by philosophical argument
ⓘ
the project of grounding moral obligation in a general theory of the good ⓘ |
| field |
ethics
ⓘ
metaethics ⓘ moral philosophy ⓘ |
| genre | academic essay ⓘ |
| historicalContext | early 20th-century British moral philosophy ⓘ |
| influenced |
20th-century analytic moral philosophy
ⓘ
W. D. Ross ⓘ later intuitionist ethicists ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainArgument | attempts to derive moral obligation from theoretical reasoning are misguided ⓘ |
| mainClaim |
moral philosophy errs when it tries to prove that we ought to do what we already recognize we ought to do
ⓘ
we know some moral obligations directly and intuitively rather than by inference ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
deontological ethics
ⓘ
foundations of moral philosophy ⓘ intuitionism in ethics ⓘ moral epistemology ⓘ moral obligation ⓘ |
| notableFor |
challenging the project of providing a theoretical foundation for moral obligation
ⓘ
defending the immediacy of moral knowledge ⓘ its influence on intuitionist and deontological ethics in the 20th century ⓘ |
| opposes |
deriving ‘ought’ from purely non-moral facts
ⓘ
deriving ‘ought’ from ‘good’ ⓘ reductive accounts of moral obligation ⓘ |
| philosophicalIssueAddressed |
the nature of justification for moral duties
ⓘ
whether moral requirements can be justified by reasoning from non-moral premises ⓘ |
| philosophicalStance |
ethical intuitionism
ⓘ
non-naturalist moral realism ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | analytic philosophy ⓘ |
| positionCriticized |
any theory that bases duty on consequences
ⓘ
deriving moral obligation from the good ⓘ hedonistic utilitarianism ⓘ ideal utilitarianism ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
duty for duty’s sake
ⓘ
prima facie duties ⓘ self-evident moral truths ⓘ |
| relatedWorkOfAuthor | Moral Obligation ⓘ |
| viewOfMoralKnowledge | some moral truths are known by direct apprehension ⓘ |
| viewOfObligation | obligations are self-evident in certain situations ⓘ |
| viewOfReason | theoretical reasoning cannot generate moral obligation ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: essay "Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?" Description of subject: "Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?" is a seminal essay by H. A. Prichard that challenges the foundations of moral philosophy by arguing that attempts to derive moral obligation from theoretical reasoning are fundamentally misguided.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
book "Duty and Interest"
linked to: essay "Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?"