Moral value, instrumental value, semantic deviation, teleology, Ayatollah Miṣbāḥ Yazdī.

In scholarly discussions, a semantic deviation occurs when a scholar deviates from the conventional meaning of the subject matter he or she discusses and theorizes about to a different unconventional meaning. The main question of this paper is whether some moral theories are subject to semantic deviations, and if so, how such a deviation has occurred. The paper aims to examine teleological moral theories to see whether and how they suffer from semantic deviations. We have done with the method of conceptual analysis, that is, we analyze the concept of “value” by distinguishing different meanings of the word and determining what is meant by it in the literature on moral philosophy.
We will then consider whether teleological theories can live up to this meaning of “value.” We conclude that teleological theories in moral philosophy, and in particular, Miṣbāḥ Yazdī’s view, are vulnerable to such a problem of semantic deviation. Ignoring the meaning of moral value, he defends the reality of the instrumental value of morality for achieving desired goals, instead of defending the reality of the moral value of actions.