ABSTRACT
The golden-rule (GR) argument is strong but not inescapable. The argument is decisive for one who wants to make genuine and consistent moral judgments on the case and doesn't have crazy desires. Thus prescriptivism gives a strong way to reason. With most other views, we can't argue further when we meet a difference on basic moral principles. Prescriptivism holds that ought judgments aren't truth claims, and so aren't literally true or false. Prescriptivism claims that the italicized part is a universalizable prescription, and means "Do this and let everyone do the same in similar cases." Prescriptivism does a good job on these; so it gives powerful ways to show that Hitler's moral beliefs are irrational – even though these beliefs aren't literally false. Prescriptivism gives strong moral arguments but not moral truths. Prescriptivism is the enemy of shortism and other forms of discrimination. The prescriptivism GR consistency condition claims that this combination is logically inconsistent.
