There are various questions associated with the area of ethics. Each of them deals with morals. Morals are defined as the right conduct or duties of a man. One of those questions is ‘Are there any universal moral values?’ Moral relativists will deny or be in favor of the existence of universal values. Another question is ‘What principles should guide my actions or choices?’ Most people judge their behavior by what is good, fair, or just. Others by what will bring them pleasure. There is no the simplest way to answer these questions. By defining the following terms: Metaethics, Normative ethics, and Applied ethics, we can close to how to answer the question ‘What is ethics?’
The subject matter in ethics is human action- not other types of actions. We consider just human action because it assumed that human are the only rational creatures. Rationality enables us to choose what we do freely. Therefore, the field of ethics involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. ‘Right and wrong’ these words refer to judgments. Judgments are assigned to people’s actions according to some standard. ‘What do I base my decisions on?’ As I referred above, most people judge their behavior by what is good, fair, or just. Others by what will bring them pleasure. These people believe in hedonism. There are also individuals that determine their actions by fear, self-preservation, or instinct. To make right judgments, people are positively free to certain actions and they are to understand for committing this freedom respecting our blame for committing this or that action.
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... by which human actions can be judged right or wrong ("ethics," Collegiate). Ethics is not primarily concerned with the description of moral systems in ... thought, Stoicism and Epicureanism, represent important approaches to the question of how one ought to live. The Middle Ages ... hand) work best under conditions of economic liberty, when people are parsimonious and prudent, and cooperative as well as ...
Philosophers divide ethical theories into three subject areas: Metaethics, Normative ethics, and Applied ethics. Metaethics is the study of the way the
world really is. Metaethics investigates where our ethical principles come from, and what they mean. Some things in the universe are made of physical stuff, such as rocks, and perhaps other things are nonphysical in nature, such as thoughts, spirits, and gods. There are two types of moral realism. One is moral absolutism. It was inspired by the Christian notion of an all-powerful God who is in control of everything. The other one is moral relativism. It is the view that moral standards are grounded in social approval. With some moral values, social approval seems to vary from culture to culture.
Considering psychological issues concerning what motivates us to be moral, there are two issues- Egoism and Altruism. We act morally to avoid punishment, to gain praise, to attain happiness, to be dignified, or to fit in with society. However, many of our actions are prompted by selfish desires. Even if an action seems selfless, such as donating to charity, there are still selfish causes for this, such as experiencing power over other people. This view is called egoism. Closely related to egoism is hedonism which is the view that pleasure is the driving force behind all of our actions. On the other hand, human also have an inherent capacity to show benevolence to others. This view is called altruism and maintains that at least some of our actions are motivated by instinctive benevolence.
Normative ethics involves a more practical task, which is to arrive at moral standards that regulate right and wrong conduct. We should do to others what we would want others to do to us. Since I don’t want my neighbor to steal my car,
then it is wrong for me to steal her car. Since I would want people to feed me if I was starving, then I should help feed starving people. Using this same reasoning, I can determine whether any possible action is right or wrong. This is an example of a normative theory that establishes a single principle against which we judge all actions.
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... views. Fletcher believed that there are three types of ethical theories; legalistic ethics, antinomian ethics and situation ethics. Deontology would be considered legalistic as it uses moral ... teachings of Jesus, it is radically different from traditional Christian ethics. Actions are not intrinsically right or wrong, but depend on what ...
Applied ethics is the branch of ethics that consists of the analysis of specific, controversial moral issues such as abortion, animal rights, and euthanasia. For instance, the field of business ethics commonly arises in the business world. These include the social responsibilities of capitalist, the moral status of corporate entities, deceptive advertising, basic employee rights, and job discrimination.
We cannot say what ethical theory is right. Also, any ethical theory will never answered fully about what is ethics. However, it is the best way to approach the field of ethics to study many different ethical theories, I think.
