Q&A: Yuval Noah Harari and the Is-Ought Fallacy
Yuval Noah Harari and the Is-Ought Fallacy
Question
In his book, Y.N.H. bases many spiritual-philosophical ideas on facts about reality. For example: the fact that a human being, until age two, is absolutely dependent on his parents in order to survive turns him into a creature whose life, personality, and thoughts are shaped absolutely by the adult. Does this statement fall under the is-ought fallacy?
Answer
What does “are shaped” mean? Is that a normative claim—that this is how it ought to be? If so, then yes. But in everyday-language arguments, there is sometimes what looks like a naturalistic fallacy because the bridging premise is not stated explicitly, since it is assumed to be obvious. So this is not really a relevant discussion. You need to understand what his implicit assumption is and discuss that.