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Directive Content
Author(s) -
Butlin Patrick
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
pacific philosophical quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.914
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1468-0114
pISSN - 0279-0750
DOI - 10.1111/papq.12328
Subject(s) - directive , content (measure theory) , representation (politics) , action (physics) , content analysis , epistemology , position (finance) , law and economics , computer science , political science , sociology , law , philosophy , business , mathematics , social science , physics , finance , quantum mechanics , politics , mathematical analysis , programming language
Abstract Representations may have descriptive content, directive content, or both, but little explicit attention has been given to the problem of distinguishing representations of these three kinds. We do not know, for instance, what determines whether a given representation is a directive instructing its consumer to perform some action or has descriptive content to the effect that the action in question has a certain value. This paper considers what it takes for a representation to have directive content. The first part of the paper presents the Liberal View, which might be taken to be the default position on this issue. The Liberal View has some attractions, but as the second part shows, these are less conclusive than they might at first appear, and there is much to be said for an alternative, the Strict View.