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Hey everyone.
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Today we're solving problem number six from chapter two of the textbook, which asks, would an op -ed piece in the newspaper urging the adoption of a particular economic policy be a positive or normative statement? so this is a section from your reading in chapter two of the textbook, which explains the difference between a positive statement and a normative statement.
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It says, first, economics is not a form of moral instruction.
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Rather, it seeks to describe economic behavior as it actually exists.
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Philosophers draw a distinction between positive statements, which describe the world as it is, and normative statements, which describe how the world should be.
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Positive statements are factual.
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They may be true or false, but we can test them, at least in principle.
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Normative statements are subjective opinions, subjective questions of opinions.
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We cannot test them, since we cannot prove opinions to be true or false...