The first is that the resultant account of morality seems unduly formal. Hart stresses the
formal nature of his four features by saying that they ‘make no d
irect reference to anynecessary content which rules or standards must have in order to be moral, nor even to any
purpose which they must serve in social life’ (p.118). However, it seems plausible that there
are substantive constraints on what may intelligibly count as the
content
of a moral standard,
and indeed that such constraints are presupposed by some of Hart’s four features. Consider
the first and fourth: importance and the distinctive character of moral pressure. It is arguablethat we cannot make sense of either of these unless we understand that moral standards havean essential connection with human interests, the satisfaction or frustration of which have asignificant bearing on how well or ill individual human lives fare.