The Inextricability of Fact and Value

In this chapter I put forward some reasons to show how judgments of fact and judgments of value are intertwined. These reasons run contrary to a deep-rooted cultural tradition, which sees a sharp distinction—a dichotomy—between the natural sciences, on the one hand, and the human sciences, on the other, and therefore between facts and values. Accordingly, I show which tradition this is and what the advantages of abandoning its main tenets are. Central to the exposition is the explanation of why the science of valuations can be taken to represent one of the best instances of the inextricability of fact and value.