More About Claims

In the book Critical Thinking by Richard Epstein, Epstein discusses prescriptive claims and value judgments. He states that a "claim is descriptive if it says what is. A claim is prescriptive if it says what should be" (Epstein, 24). What he means by a descriptive claim is that when someone states something like they are hot or that Obama is the United States first African American president, then the subject that is being said is something that is usually a fact. When Epstein discusses a prescriptive claim it is something like Obama should reform health care or if someone is hot then they should go swimming.

As part of the prescriptive claim, there are words that make the claim more effective. Words such as bad, wrong, worse, good, better, and best are words that help with the claim to make us feel that we should or should not do something. This is what makes the prescriptive claim more of a moral claim or value judgment. Sometimes though, the moral claim or value judgment is too vague to be a claim. Someone could state something that is non debatable or the standard could be personal.