ABSTRACT
The normative reading seems, of course, best suited for explaining the content of ethical discourse, since ethical norms are among those norms that can be built directly into the analysis of meaning. The meaning of a subject’s belief can thus be taken in either an ‘objective’ or a ‘subjective’ fashion, with both being understood, ultimately, in terms of the pragmatic maxim. The subjective meaning is tied to the experiences which actually would lead the subject to form the belief and the actions it actually would lead them to perform, while the objective meaning reflects the experience which should lead them to form the belief and the actions that they should perform if they had believed it. The subjective meanings reflect the current state of inquiry, while objective meanings reflect how people would act if people inquired on the relevant matters for long enough.
