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Descriptive
Descriptive claims describe (say how the world in fact is/was/will be).
Examples in ethics:
- 60% of people think that it is bad to lie.
- The Ten Commandments tell us not to lie.
- Do people think that lying is wrong?
- What do the Ten Commandments tell us about lying?
Descriptive ethics involves describing how people behave and/or what sorts of moral standards they claim to follow. It incorporates research from the fields of anthropology, psychology, sociology and history as part of the process of understanding what people do or have believed about moral norms. Anthropologists and sociologists can provide us with all sorts of information about how societies past and present have structured moral standards and how they have expected people to behave. Psychologists can study how a person's conscience develops and how that person goes about actually making moral choices in real or hypothetical situations.
Descriptive science is used to identify a category of science and distinguish it from other categories of science. The exact demarcation line can vary a bit depending on the purpose of making the distinction, but essentially it refers to those parts of science whose emphasis lies in accurate repeatable descriptions such as:
X causes A in circumstances B.
Niiniluoto suggests that the distinction between what he calls descriptive sciences and design sciences is fundamental. "Descriptive sciences primarily aim to describe, explain and understand the reality surrounding us. Design sciences, on the other hand, aim at knowledge that is useful for the activity of design, i.e. aim to enhance human art and skill."
Normative (or prescriptive)
Normative claims prescribe (say what should be done) or evaluate (say what's good/bad).
Examples in ethics:
- It's wrong to tell a lie.
- Is it wrong to tell a lie?
- What should be our moral obligations?
- What is Right and what is Wrong?
- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (Golden Rule)
Normative ethics involves creating or evaluating moral standards. Thus, it is an attempt to figure out what people should do or whether their current moral behavior is reasonable. Traditionally, most of the field of moral philosophy has involved normative ethics. This process involves examining the moral standards people currently use in order to determine if they are justifiable, as well as attempting to construct new moral standards which might be better. In either case, the philosopher is critically investigating the nature and grounds of moral standards, moral principles, moral rules, and moral conduct.
Normative science is a form of inquiry, typically involving a community of inquiry and its accumulated body of provisional knowledge, that seeks to discover good ways of achieving recognized aims, ends, goals, objectives, or purposes. The three normative sciences, according to traditional conceptions in philosophy, are aesthetics, ethics, and logic.
A theory of education can be "normative (or prescriptive) as in philosophy, or descriptive as in science."[1] In the first case, a theory means a postulation about what ought to be. It provides the "goals, norms, and standards for conducting the process of education."[2] In the second case, it means "an hypothesis or set of hypotheses that have been verified by observation and experiment."[1] Whereas a normative educational theory provided by a philosopher might offer goals of education, descriptive "theory provides concrete data that will help realize more effectively the goals suggested by the philosopher."[1] A descriptive theory of education can be thought of as a conceptual scheme that ties together various "otherwise discrete particulars. . .For example, a cultural theory of education shows how the concept of culture can be used to organize and unify the variety of facts about how and what people learn."[3] Likewise, for example, there is the behaviorist theory of education that comes from educational psychology and the functionalist theory of education that comes from sociology of education.[4]
Analytical
Analytical (metaethics) ethics: involves reasoning about the presuppositions behind the moral systems developed under the category of normative ethics. Whenever a moral system is created, it is based upon certain premises about reality, human nature, values, etc. Metaethics is all about questioning the validity of those premises and arguing that perhaps we don't really know what we are talking about after all.
Example questions:
- How are moral judgments even possible? Why be moral at all?
- Do moral values exist objectively or only subjectively?
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