A Summary Critique Of the Fact/Value Dichotomy

Robert A Harris
A Summary Critique of the Fact/Value Dichotomy

One of the most significant struggles in the marketplace of ideas takes place over the control of the terms of discourse. Those who can frame a controversial issue in terms they prefer, have a great advantage in shaping public opinion. “Are you pro-choice or anti-choice?” is a typical example of this kind of framing….

The positivists declared that only facts, derived from experiment and observation, could be called truth, and they rejected all talk about values (ethics, morals, religion, philosophy) not only as “preferences without foundation”(5) but as meaningless or “non-cognitive” babble…..

Values also come into play in the choice of theories