Abstract

Value‐words have their peculiar combination of descriptive and prescriptive meaning, Hare argues, because they are used for a specific purpose—to commend. To commend is not, however, to say something about a particular class of objects, but to make known to someone a standard for judging objects in this class in general—i.e. to guide her choice about objects in this class. Put in terms of Part I, to commend is to teach or decide on principles of choosing between objects of a certain class. Consequently, value‐judgements share the characteristics of universal imperative sentences.