Objectivity and the Science—Ethics Distinction

Abstract

The Logical Positivists argued for a sharp fact–value dichotomy in a very simple way: scientific statements (outside of logic and pure mathematics), they said, are ‘empirically verifiable’ and value judgements are ‘unverifiable’. This argument continues to have wide appeal to economists (not to say laymen), even though it has for some years been looked upon as naïve by philosophers. One reason that the argument is naïve is that it assumes that there is such a thing as ‘the method of verification’ of each isolated ...