descriptivism

n.
The practice or application of descriptive linguistics, especially in the analysis of grammar.

descriptivist de·scrip'tiv·ist adj. & n.

The view contrasted with prescriptivism by Hare, according to which the meaning of an evaluative term is given without the element of command, or approval, or pressure on action, but is simply thought of as a paraphrase of the natural descriptions of the things to which it applies. The problem is that the element of evaluation seems to have thereby got lost. See naturalistic fallacy, open question argument.