Facts versus values
A fact is a statement about what is. You can check it with evidence: "Sugar causes tooth decay", "The bus is late".
A value is a statement about what ought to be, or what is good or bad: "We should eat less sugar", "Being late is rude".
Key idea: facts alone never give you an "ought". To reach "we should eat less sugar", you also need a value, such as "we ought to protect our health". Many arguments go wrong because one side argues about facts and the other about values, so they talk past each other.
Quick test
Ask: "Could a measurement or record settle this?" If yes, it is a factual claim. If people could agree on every fact and still disagree, it is a value claim.
Analysing a human action
Philosophers often split an action into parts:
- Intention (motive): why the person acted. Helping someone or harming them?
- Means (the act itself): what they actually did. Telling the truth, lying, taking, giving.
- Circumstances: when, where, with whom, and what choices were available.
- Consequences: the results for everyone affected, both short-term and long-term.
Also ask about freedom and knowledge: did the person choose freely, and did they know what they were doing? We blame people less when they were forced or truly could not have known.
Example: breaking a car window is usually wrong. Breaking it to save a baby locked inside on a hot day changes the intention, circumstances and consequences, and most people judge it right.
Moral standards, principles and virtues
Moral norms are shared rules in a group ("keep promises", "do not steal"). Moral principles are the deeper reasons behind them, such as:
- Do not cause needless harm.
- Treat people fairly and equally.
- Respect every person's dignity; do not use people only as tools.
- Tell the truth.
- Help those in need when you can.
Making a judgement
A moral judgement applies a principle to the facts of a case: principle + fact → judgement. To check it, ask: is the principle acceptable, and are the facts true?
Virtues
Virtues are good traits of character built by practice: honesty, fairness, kindness, courage, self-control, humility. Knowing the right thing is not enough; virtues help you do it, even when it is hard.
Why people act wrongly
- Peer and group pressure: wanting to fit in.
- Self-interest: wanting money, marks or comfort for oneself.
- Ignorance: not knowing the facts or the harm caused.
- Weak will: knowing what is right but giving in to temptation.
- Rationalising: making excuses ("everyone does it", "no one will notice", "they deserved it").
- Obedience: following orders without thinking.
- Distance: harming people we cannot see feels easier.
Knowing these pulls helps you notice them in yourself and push back.
Why be moral? Moral imagination and living ethically
Why be moral?
Some answers: it lets people trust each other and live together; it protects the weak; it makes us the kind of person we respect; most religions and philosophies agree on core values like honesty and care. Even a selfish person benefits from a world where promises are kept.
Moral imagination
Moral imagination is the skill of picturing how a choice will feel to everyone affected, and imagining new options beyond the obvious two. For example, instead of "tell the teacher" or "stay silent" about a friend copying, you might first talk to the friend privately.
Living ethically
Ethics is not only for big dilemmas. It shows in daily habits: how we use resources, how we treat people online, how we spend money and time.
Methods of ethical inquiry: solving a dilemma
A dilemma is a situation where good values clash. Use these steps:
- Problem: state the question clearly.
- Facts: gather what is true; separate facts from opinions.
- People: list everyone affected (stakeholders).
- Options: list at least three choices.
- Tests: check each option. Is it honest? Fair? Does it cause the least harm? Would it be OK if everyone did it? Would I be OK if it were made public?
- Decide and act, then review: what did I learn?
Other inquiry tools: thought experiments, discussing with people who disagree, and checking your argument for hidden assumptions.
Try it
In the 3D free-play step, test all four choices for the wallet dilemma. Then pick a real dilemma from your own life (for example, a friend asks to copy your homework) and run the six inquiry steps on paper. Ask a family member to do the same and compare your answers.
Key formulas and definitions
- Fact: a statement about what is, checkable with evidence
- Value: a statement about what ought to be, or what is good or bad
- Moral judgement = principle + facts of the case
- Intention, means, circumstances, consequences: the four parts of an action
- Virtue: a good trait of character built by practice
- Rationalising: making excuses so a wrong act feels acceptable
- Moral imagination: picturing the effect of a choice on others and inventing new options
- Dilemma: a choice where important values clash
Worked examples
1. Sort: (a) "Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down." (b) "Shops should stop giving plastic bags."
(a) is a fact: it can be checked by science. (b) is a value: it says what ought to happen.
2. Riya takes a classmate's pen without asking, meaning to return it after the test. Analyse the four parts.
Intention: to write in the test, not to steal. Means: taking without permission. Circumstances: her pen ran out, no time to ask. Consequences: the classmate may worry or be unable to write. Judgement: small wrong; asking first or returning quickly with an apology makes it right.
3. Build a moral argument against cheating in an exam.
Principle: we should treat others fairly. Fact: cheating gives one student an unfair advantage over those who studied. Judgement: cheating is wrong.
4. A student laughs at a joke that hurts another student because the whole group is laughing. What made them act wrongly, and what could help?
Peer pressure (and maybe not thinking about the other student's feelings). Moral imagination, picturing being the target, and the courage to stay silent or speak up could help.
Common mistakes
- Treating a value as if it were a fact ("It is a fact that this is wrong"). Values need reasons, not just measurements.
- Judging only by results. A good outcome by luck does not make a careless or harmful intention right.
- Judging only by intention. Good intentions do not excuse foreseeable harm.
- Thinking a dilemma has only two options. Moral imagination often finds a better third choice.