Morphilintro

8/4/2019 Morphilintro

1/8

The field of ethics (or moral philosophy) involves

systematizing, defending, and recommending

concepts of right and wrong behavior.

What is Ethics?


2/8

Metaethics

Normativeethics

Appliedethics

Moral Philosophy


3/8

Metaethics talks about the nature of ethics and moral

reasoning.

Demarcation of Ethical Theories

Normative ethics is interested in determining the contentof our moral behavior.

Applied Ethics attempts to deal with specific realms of

human action and to craft criteria for discussing issues

that might arise within those realms.


4/8

Abortion

I ought to dox

How do I

know x? AE

ME

NE


5/8

Metaethics

Psychological

Issues

Metaphysical

Issues


6/8

The metaphysical component of metaethics involves

discovering specifically whether moral values areeternal truths that exist in a spirit-like realm, or simply

human conventions. There are two general directions

that discussions of this topic take, one other-worldly

and one this-worldly.

A second area of metaethics involves the psychological

basis of our moral judgments and conduct, particularly

understanding what motivates us to be moral.


7/8

Normative ethics involves arriving at moral standardsthat regulate right and wrong conduct. In a sense, it is

a search for an ideal litmus test of proper behavior.

The key assumption in normative ethics is that there

is only one ultimate criterion of moral conduct,

whether it is a single rule or a set of principles.


8/8

Applied ethics is the branch of ethics which consists of theanalysis of specific, controversial moral issues such as abortion,

animal rights, or euthanasia.

Two features are necessary for an issue to be considered an

applied ethical issue. First, the issue needs to be controversial in

the sense that there are significant groups of people both for and

against the issue at hand.

The second requirement for an issue to be an applied ethical issue

is that it must be a distinctly moral issue.

Documents

Morphilintro