The ‘de facto’ values in the passage means
2011
The ‘de facto’ values in the passage means
Answer: A. What is — Concept. Value theory separates two modes in which a value can be stated. A de facto value (Latin de facto, "in fact") is descriptive: it reports the state of…
- A.
What is
- B.
What ought to be
- C.
What can be
- D.
Where it is
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Concept. Value theory separates two modes in which a value can be stated. A de facto value (Latin de facto, "in fact") is descriptive: it reports the state of affairs that actually obtains. An ideal or normative value is prescriptive: it states the standard that should obtain. The first answers "what is the case", the second answers "what should be the case".
Application. The passage defines the term for us in so many words: "The de facto values describe what we are, they portray the ‘is’ of our ethic, they are est values (Latin est means is)." The term is therefore tied to the ethical ‘is’ — the actual condition of our ethic — and is labelled with the Latin est.
Cross-check. The very next sentence supplies the opposite pole, so the two labels can be set side by side:
Latin label | Kind of value | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|
est | de facto values | what is |
esto | ideal values | what ought to be |
Testing the other readings against the passage:
"What ought to be" is the passage’s own gloss on the esto or ideal values, which it introduces as the contrast to the term asked about.
"What can be" states a possibility. The passage builds its contrast on actuality versus obligation and never sets up a category of possible values.
"Where it is" states a location. The passage’s axis is ‘is’ versus ‘ought’, a matter of condition rather than of place.
Result. In this passage the de facto values mean: what is — the ethic as it actually stands.