Examples and Analysis of Ethical Proposition Types

We discussed in detail the proposition types and now we are able to see the examples in dept and understand the implications is daily life.

Examples and the analysis of the propositions

‘D’: Descriptive Proposition            ‘M’: Moral Proposition
‘C’: Conceptual Proposition            ‘DM’: Ambiguous Proposition

D1 Most teachers think that positive reinforcement is the most ethical form of behavior control.

The proposition is true and many of you may wonder why this is a descriptive proposition, the “ethical form”
let people think that way. The point here is that the speaker itself is not making any judgment but is simply reporting the judgment made by other people.

D2 No teachers employ positive reinforcement.

The proposition is false, but compared to our system of categorization it is considered a descriptive proposition. The speaker tries to describe the behavior of the teacher but fails to do so properly.

M1 No teachers should employ positive reinforcement.

Unlike the first one, speaker makes his own moral judgment, what in his view teacher must do. (Note: the word should helps in distinguishing the moral and descriptive proposition here)

M2 It is only morally proper to employ positive reinforcement if the individual in question is too young to understand the worth of some activity.

Again the speaker is expressing his own moral judgment rather than expressing other people point of view, what others think.(Note: the statement is also morally true)

C1 Bachelors are unmarried adult males.

If some think that this proposition is true while others don’t think similar, it is the different meaning of the bachelors which give rise to this dispute.

C2 Bachelors are not unmarried adult males.

The negation, ’not’ makes this proposition a false.

DM1 Professionals arguing in front of a client causes the client to lose trust in their judgement and it is wrong to cause any such loss of trust.

Disagreement among the professionals will cause the confusion in the client mind about the right and wrong judgment (descriptive part of the proposition) and the client lose the trust (moral proposition, as it must not happen)

Other examples are

M3 It is usually wrong to bribe someone to do something.

D3 All patients wish to be told the truth about their condition.

C3 ‘Bachelor’ means ‘unmarried adult male’.