Politics and Value, Part 2

Abstract

In the first part of this essay, from page 14 through 18, we talked about the relation between norms and fact and suggested that the problem of the role of norms would not arise in a situation of simple harmony. We also suggested that the problem of norms arises as does the sense of human freedom—the awareness of the extent to which man transcends the patterns of “natural freedom” found in the world of nature. Thus the problem of the relation between fact and norm is an aspect of the problem of man’s freedom in general. To put the matter in other terms, the difficulties in delimiting with any precision the area of human freedom are seen in the difficulty in drawing with any precision or “objectivity” the line between statements of fact and statements of value.