Saturday, September 4, 2010
Week 2 - Post 3: Descriptive and Prescriptive Claims
As I was reading through chapter two of Epstein’s Critical Thinking, I came across the section on descriptive and prescriptive claims. I chose to write on this topic because I encounter these types of claims rather frequently in my everyday conversations. A descriptive claim is a statement that says exactly what it means. For example, “Ryan gets sunburns easily,” states exactly what it means. My boyfriend is currently working on a roofing job and is subjected to direct sunlight for several hours each day. As result, he has become fairly sunburned. A prescriptive claim is a sentence that suggests what should happen in a situation. In this case, my prescriptive claim would be, “Ryan should wear sunscreen.” This claim was made by looking at the problem and then suggesting an action that would serve as a solution. Obviously, if Ryan were to put on sunscreen regularly, he would not have to face the issue of being sunburned.
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This was a really good description on descriptive and prescriptive claims. I have not even read this section yet and I feel like I have a good understanding on it. You gave an example about your boyfriend, Ryan getting easily sunburned as descriptive. And for prescriptive, you said that he should wear sunscreen. Just by reading the prescriptive claim alone, you can come to the conclusion that he does not wear sunscreen. Your descriptive claim says what is and your prescriptive claim says what should be. Overall, good job on touching bases with this. It really helped me understand it.
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