Descriptive vs Normative Statements

Aristotle once said “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst. “ Aristotle saw how we as humans were different from other animals; we were able to create these non-existent rules for humans to follow without question. Laws help shape the society we live in, whether they are positive or negative, our morality can come into play when faced with a troubling situation, why should words on paper dictate what we can and cannot achieve? Why is parchment more credible than the humans’ testimony? Should Gods sway the way laws work? These questions are all important when dealing with the creations of rules and regulations.

According to Merriam-Webster, ethics is defined as an area of study that deals with ideas about what is good and bad behavior. Some would argue that definition is rather vague. A more complete understanding of ethics would suggest that it is more than just an area of study but rather a way of life; moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior. If one is ethical and has good moral standards, it is usually seen in that person. Simply put, ethics could be considered the standards of behavior as to which society accepts.

The authors talk about the laws and history as shaping the moral views of society, those who are in authority get to dictate what is right from what is wrong. The system is base on what those in power determine is the moral rule.

Law is a system of rules that are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior. (Robertson, Crimes against humanity, 90).Laws can be made by a collective legislature or by a single legislator, resulting in statutes, by the executive through decrees and regulations, or by judges through binding precedent, normally in common jurisdictions.

Debbie: Just because something is legal does not necessarily mean ethical. Laws are generally about social convections referred to as rules or norms we engage in without thinking much about it and these are not always ethical so in turn human laws are not necessarily always ethical either. In fact there is no connection between the two (Elder & Paul, n.d.).

Generally, the law and ethics are in unison. However, the rule of the law and ethics could

Normative ethical subjectivism is an ethical stance that attempts to specify circumstances under which an action is morally right or wrong using four distinct arguments that try to prove this claim. Normative ethical subjectivism claims that an act is morally right if, and only if, the person judging the action approves of it. Stemming form this view on ethics a normative ethical theory has been made. An ethical theory is a theory of what is right and wrong. This stance on ethics is the opposite of another ethical stance called methethical antirealism. Methethical antirealism is centered on the idea that because there is no right and wrong actions, just personal preferences there is no such thing as morality. It also states that morals are

It is the determination of what should be done and what should not be done. Law or a legal system is distinguished from morality or a moral system by having explicit written rules, penalties, and officials who interpret the laws and apply the penalties. Although there is often considerable overlap in the conduct governed by morality and that governed by law, laws are often evaluated on moral grounds. Moral criticism is often used to support a change in the law. Some have even maintained that the interpretation of law must make use of morality (Dworkin).

Ethics is developing a way of determining what values ought to be-how we ought to act embraces characteristics of honesty, fairness, compassion and integrity. Law is rules created by the governing body of a society to maintain harmony, stability and justice in that society. Ethics and law are exactly same in that ethics is what one should or should not do according to principles or norms of conduct. Ethics codes are not produced by democratically elected legislatures and the enforcement mechanisms are usually informal, may be complex and even unconscious. Whereas law is what one must do or must not do according to legal dictates. Laws are created by democratically elected legislatures in democracies and it comes with explicit penalties for infractions and a formal enforcement system.

Ethics and law do not always go hand in hand. Not every law is ethical, and even if a law is considered ethical on its surface, it may result in unethical outcomes. "Ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.”

According to Reference.com (2007), law is defined as: “rules of conduct of any organized society, however simple or small, that are enforced by threat of punishment if they are violated. Modern law has a wide sweep and regulates many branches of conduct.” Essentially law is the rules and regulations that aid in governing conduct,

In every political society it is the law which contributes to its civilized character, but law is the handmaid of social justice, rendering in the interest of society that which is according to law and to which a person or persons are entitled.

When discussing the relationship between law and ethics a lot of things are taken in consideration. But the first thing is to know what each of them mean. In some ways law plays a role in ethical values, while some laws can be influenced by ethical values.

Ethic is a set of principles and philosophy that governs the thought process pertaining to conducts of people in diversified field. It could be science, civic society, law & order, politics, diplomacy or any personal matter between two individuals. Moral is more to do with differentiating right from wrong, setting standard for oneself for best behavior and learning from the past experience and applying them in present to achieve sense of self belief and respect in any chosen field. Law is a set of rules written, implemented, executed and upheld by social institutions to govern the behavior of individuals and institutions.

In this essay I will discuss the definition of the concept grammar in linguistic science and thee attitude teachers may have towards such a conceptualization of what grammar is. I will go into detail by explaining perspective and descriptive grammar.