Ethics and Values / Unit 1 Ethics 036 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Locating a Disagreement
The idea
Locating a disagreement means putting both sides into standard form, marking each premise factual or moral, and finding the first line where the sides part.
In practice
The city debates a school phone ban. Side one: phones cut attention; schools should protect attention; so ban them. Side two: phones cut attention; bans teach compliance instead of judgment; schools should build judgment; so no ban. Mark every line. Both sides hold the same factual premise — phones cut attention. They part at the moral line: protect attention first, or build judgment first. That line is the disagreement. More studies about attention will not close it; argument about what schools are for might.
Where people slip
When every fact is shared and the sides still part, the dispute is a values dispute; data cannot referee the values line.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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