Moral Adages and Analyticity
(1) “Too much of X is bad for you.” Is this analytic? Can “too much of X” be viewed in terms of its material properties so as to generate a naturalistic fallacy a la Moore? Does this depend on the content of X? X=lovin’! X=Love! Well, we can look at material composition (components manifesting) of love–is this what we say there is too much of when there is “too much” of it? Does the “too much of X” locution bear logical equivalence to “bad”? “Bad stuff is bad for you.” But we seem to be counting: “how much is too much?” is a typical response. If you must ask this, then you cannot be conceived of the moral propositional content. There will be none for the bearer of this question. But they might be sold: in principle, however, this question is philosophical, puzzling. One who wishes not to pursue it will not show that it is not a puzzle, but that it is pragmatically futile to do so.