Value Vagueness

"In my ethics class, I teach a section on moral methods which are argument templates for ethical reasoning. One method, which is useful beyond ethics, is Logical Consistency. Two claims are logically consistent with each other when both can be true at the same time. For example, the claim "restricting freedom is sometimes acceptable" is consistent with the claim "restricting freedom is sometimes unacceptable" since they can both be true."

"Two claims are inconsistent when both cannot be true at the same time (but both could be false). For example, the claim "people should be free from government control" would seem to be inconsistent with the claim "the government should ban the teaching of critical race theory." This is because while these claims cannot both be true at the same time, they could both be false."

Republican politicians in Florida profess a commitment to freedom while enacting laws that restrict various liberties. Governor DeSantis opposed mask mandates and vaccine passports on grounds of fighting "medical authoritarianism" and claimed support for free speech while pursuing book bans. The state government banned critical race theory, mandated surveys of political beliefs among faculty and students, and engaged in other restrictions. Logical Consistency as an ethical method assesses whether multiple claims can be true simultaneously. Some professed values and enacted policies appear inconsistent, indicating vagueness in stated values and that at least one conflicting claim must be false.

Read at A Philosopher's Blog