Against Value Monism

Formal value dualists believe that “good” and “good for” denote two kinds of values neither of which can be understood in terms of the other. Formal value monists deny this. They believe that an analysis will make it clear that one of these notions either does not make sense or is just a convoluted idea of referring to what the view conceives of as the non-derivative notion. Two versions of value monism are considered, so-called Good-monism and Good-for monism. It is argued that both kinds are in at least some respects inferior to Value dualism. Both kinds bar us from making certain kinds of evaluations that a formal theory has no business to dismiss.

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