The naturalistic fallacy in Hume's moral and political philosophy

The naturalistic fallacy —first explicitly exposed by Hume— amounts to an attempt to infer a prescriptive claim from a descriptive one. However, the fact/value dichotomy presupposed by the naturalistic fallacy seems to run contrary to Hume's moral naturalism. In my thesis, I first present a systematic classification of the various responses to Hume's take on the issue. Then, following Sayre-McCord and Pigden, I argue that, contrary to the received view, Hume's goal is to overcome the naturalistic fallacy. Accordingly, I contend that Hume's focus on thick concepts indicates that for him, thick concepts can function as analytical bridges to produce prescriptive claims from descriptive ones.