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Descriptive vs Normative Statements

Decent Essays

Question 1 To explain the distinction between Descriptive and Normative Statements one first has to understand the difference between Descriptive and Normative Ethics. Descriptive ethics primarily describes people’s moral beliefs, claims and behaviors. This form of ethics is studied primarily by psychologist, sociologist and anthropologist. With Normative ethics we deal with the attempt to discover what actions are in fact right or wrong, good or bad and what it takes to be a moral or immoral person. This area of ethics is studied more by philosophers and theologist. To simplify, Descriptive statements are statements about what is; while Normative statements are statements about what ought to be.
When we describe what people believe …show more content…

However, one definition is that laws are a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior. By this definition we can already see why the study of ethics and laws should not be intertwined. The smoking gun in this claim is the statement, “guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior”. We see that the words social institutions are used. A social institution is nothing more than

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