Descriptive and Prescriptive Claims

In chapter 2, Epstein distinguishes between descriptive and prescriptive claims.  “A claim is descriptive if it says what is.  A claim is prescriptive if it says what should be” (Epstein, 24).  To elaborate, descriptive claims portray and illustrate what something or someone is.  Also, prescriptive claims are based more on opinions than facts.

For example, I could say, “The unemployment rate of California is the highest of any state in the United States.”  This is a descriptive claim, even if it is not true.  On the other hand, I may say, “California should be the state with the lowest unemployment rate in the United States.”  Since this is more of an opinion, this claim is a prescriptive one. 

In this chapter, we studied vague sentences, subjective and objective claims, definitions, value judgments, and prescriptive and descriptive claims.  These classifications of claims are crucial to understand in order to succeed in this course.