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Normative and Descriptive Claims

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Descriptive claims report how things are; normative claims say how things ought to be. Ethics is the systematic study of the normative.

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"Most people break small promises" is descriptive—a survey could check it. "Promise-breaking is wrong" is normative—no survey touches it.

Watch for

Mixing the two smuggles conclusions: popularity is not permission.