Why a value judgment have no object truth. Using practical illustration in politics, religion, medicine and law explain why a value judgment, unlike a factual statement will have no object truth.
Using practical illustration in politics, religion, medicine and law explain why a value judgment, unlike a factual statement will have no object truth.
Some arguments rely solely on factual claims for support, some arguments rely solely on value judgments for support, and some arguments rely on a mixture of the two. A value judgment is a claim that a particular human action or object has some degree of importance, worth, or desirability. We engage in moral reasoning when we construct or follow arguments that rely on value judgments exclusively, or a mixture or value judgments and descriptive judgments.
Some moral arguments are intended to be prescriptive. In a moral setting, advice may be offered either by specifying a particular action that ought to be performed, or by providing general moral rules, principles, or guidelines that should be followed. Some moral arguments are normative. Normative arguments establish standards for correct moral behavior; determining norms or rules of conduct.
When studying moral arguments, it is important to be conversant with the following concepts:
A value judgement is an evaluative statement of how good or bad you think an idea or action is. A value judgement is often prescriptive, i.e. a normative view might be expressed that reveals certain attitudes or behaviours toward the world.
All government economic policies are influenced by value judgements, which vary from person to person, resulting in fierce debate between competing political parties.
Positive statements are objective statements that can be tested, amended or rejected by referring to the available evidence. Positive economics deals with objective explanation and the testing and rejection of theories.
Positive statements ought to be value judgement free – but this is often hard to achieve because we all bring to discussion and debate a set of values of ideas.
Deciding whether a statement is positive or normative is a common multiple-choice question.
Examiners may include words such as ‘should’ in statements that are positive (this is done to make students think they are normative and contain valuejudgements!).
The rule-of-thumb is that students should always consider whether the statement can be tested. If it can be tested, then it is a positive statement.