The Stasis Model, Part 1: Different Types of Claims

Consider these statements:

• It is snowing outside.
• Snow is white, cold, and falls from clouds under the right conditions.
• It is snowing really bad.
• We should dig the car out of the snow.

Each of these statements says something about snow, but each one says something different about it, and in doing so, makes different types of claims. When doing more serious writing or research, types of claims convey different information and refer to the stances we take on issues and topics. The Stasis Model is a way to help us know what kinds of claims we’re making and their relationship to one another by identifying four different types of claims. They are:

• Fact: Claims about the existence of something.
• Definition: Claims about the traits, characteristics, and attributes of something.
• Value: Claims about the superiority or inferiority of something.
• Policy: Claims about the action to be taken about something.

You can identify the type of claim something is by asking the following questions:

• Does it exist? Is it a thing?
• What's it like?
• How good/bad/important/unimportant/useful/useless/etc. is it?
• What should be done about/because of it?

So let’s apply these questions to the above claims:

Fact Claim: It is snowing outside.

• Does snow exist? Yes, and for the sake of discussion, let's say there is in fact snow outside, so still yes. Fact claims almost always boil down to either “yes it is” or “no it isn't”. If there was no snow outside, the claim would be false, because there's no snow outside. If the claim was “snow doesn’t exist”, it would still be a Fact claim, and false.
• This does not deal with what snow is like (Definition) or the severity of the snow (Value).

Definition Claim: Snow is white, cold, and falls from clouds under the right conditions.

• What is snow like? Even though the description is vague, it's accurate because these are some of snow’s attributes. Just because it doesn't describe the geometric patterns snow forms, the chemical composition, etc., does not make it an inaccurate description or any other type of claim.
• Fact claims just say whether or not something is. Definition goes into more detail to describe whatever it is. This doesn’t deal with the quality of the snow, just what snow is like.

Value Claim: It is snowing really bad.

• How good is the snow? Apparently, it's bad. This implies degrees of quality: good or bad, better or worse, etc. In our example, the snow is bad (snow that decreases visibility, takes out power, etc) as opposed to snow that is good (creates a snow pack for farmers, good skiing and snowboarding conditions, etc).
• Value claims require Definition and Fact claims; you can't claim snow is good or bad if you don't know what snow is, and you'd have to define just what constitutes good or bad snow.

Policy Claim: We should dig the car out of the snow.

• What should be done about the snow? This goes beyond describing something or judging its quality. Policy addresses the action that should be taken. In this situation, it's digging the car out of the snow.
• We can arrive at this claim because of the corresponding Value claim the snow is “really bad”. Once we determine the Value of something we can act based on the Value we claim it to have. If it's a good or important thing, we should promote, protect, and enable it. If it's a bad thing, we should deter and prevent it.

The Stasis Model gives us tools to better understand and break down our arguments by helping trace our ideas and make sure we understand them. We like to argue Policy and Value all the time, but we can't properly make these claims without understanding the Definition or even the Fact levels of the issue we’re making claims about.