Yeah, without ethics, how is democracy superior to totalitarianism?
Positivism/pragmatism will only give you the is – never the should.
It’s true tho…
And it is worth noting that, on this account, positivism produces pragmatism; pragmatism is what is left over once positivism claims its territory. But neither positivism nor pragmatism can explain why democracy is superior to totalitarianism. In fact, Hutchins continues, by splitting the human lifeworld in the way they do, positivism and pragmatism leave us with “a colossal confusion of means and ends. Wealth and power become the ends of life,” because the realm of value is the realm of opinion, in which I seek nothing more than easy justifications for my desires. “Men become merely means. Justice is the interest of the stronger.”
-Alan Jacobs, The Year Of Our Lord 1943 (Amazon)