EL1

• Ethics

  • a systematic study of morality
  • prescriptive - what people ought to do, how we should view morality
  • the discipline that examines the moral standards of an individual or society
• Applied Ethics

  • analysis of various ethical issues, thereby guiding our moral judgement.
  • The study of how people should act with regard to specific issues or in specific situations
• Descriptive Ethics

  • Not considered an area of moral philosophy.
  • Focus in on what morality is rather than what morality should be.
• Moral statements are normative statements.

  • They express something ought to be or should be the case.
  • Basis of Assessment: Moral, Aesthetic, Grammatical, Legal, Etiquette
• Ethical Relativism

  • View that all moral principles are valid relative to a particular individual or society.
  • View that no absolute standard exists by which different rules can be judged.
• Subjectivism

  - The rightness or wrongness of an action lies on the individual’s own commitments
• Conventionalism

  • The rightness or wrongness of an action depends on the society’s culture or norms.