In practice we combine principles drawn from ethics with knowledge from other fields, such as praxeology, medicine, or engineering, in order to determine a specific course of action. A typical "practical syllogism" might be expressed as follows:
ETHICAL PREMISE:
A human being should seek to maximize his or her health.
PREMISE FROM NUTRITION:
+
Eating foods rich in vitamin C is favorable to one's
health.
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION:
A human being should eat foods rich in vitamin C.
Note that the ethical premise and the premise from nutrition together "add up" to the practical conclusion. If one reasoned from an opposite (and incorrect) nutritional premise—namely, that vitamin C is toxic, even in small quantities—then the resulting practical conclusion would be quite different. The conclusion would also be different if one argued from the opposite (and incorrect) ethical premise that one's life and health were not objective values, but disvalues.
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