Katelynn Hill #10
Within every society ethics play a major role in individual decision making and in order to maintain structure, ethical principles are developed through individual experience, laws, and religion. Choices, whether ethical or not, can impact one’s development of relationships, success in any career fields, the overall feeling of happiness. In attempt to understand the concept of ethics, philosophers have spent much time questioning how people ought to act in order to live in the best way possible.
Within every society ethics play a major role in individual decision making and in order to maintain structure, ethical principles are developed through individual experience, laws, and religion. Choices, whether ethical or not, can impact one’s development of relationships, success in any career fields, the overall feeling of happiness. In attempt to understand the concept of ethics, philosophers have spent much time questioning how people ought to act in order to live in the best way possible.
Well before any concepts of ethics had been unveiled, the early philosopher Socrates, found himself fascinated with human behavior and morals. As Plato’s writing suggests, Socrates is understood to be the father of Western ethics and according to him,”people will naturally do what is good provided that they know what is right, and that evil or bad actions are purely the result of ignorance,” (“Ethics - By Branch / Doctrine”, 2008). Socrates believed that knowledge and wisdom could lead a person to undoubted happiness, and those who are truthfully wise will be the ones to understand how to do what is right. Essentially, ethically sufficient behavior, according to Socrates, can only be achieved by those who understand themselves, and are knowledgeable about what brings true happiness.
“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance”. -Socrates
While attempting to uncover the meaning of ethical behavior, it is important to understand that ethics is sectioned into four branches: Normative Ethics, Descriptive Ethics, Applied Ethics, and Meta-Ethics. Each branch is used to explain various questions pertaining to proper behavior, general thoughts on what is correct, how morals are use and what it means to do the ‘right’ thing.
Normative Ethics (or Prescriptive Ethics) “How should people act?”
Normative ethics is concerned with assessing how things should be, which things are good or bad, and which actions are right or wrong. In attempts to develop a set of rules for how people should act, the normative theories are split into three categories: Consequentialism, Deontology and Virtue Ethics.
Consequentialism- The morality of an action can be determined based on the action’s outcome. Theories according to this idea are:
-Utilitarianism- an action is right if it leads to the most happiness for the greatest number of people
-Hedonism- pleasure is most important, and people should act in order to maximize theirown pleasure
-Egoism- an action is right if it is good for one’s general welfare
-Asceticism- it is important to life a life of abstinence from pleasure
-Altruism- make decisions that betters others rather than themselves
-Rule Consequentialism- moral behavior requires following a set rules based off consequences
-Negative Consequentialism- Minimizing bad consequences (not necessarily promoting good consequences)
Deontology- Focusing on the rightness or wrongness of actions rather than their consequences,these theories include:
-Divine Command Theory- an action is right if God says it is right
-Natural Rights Theory- humans have natural rights
-Categorica Imperative- people must act according to their duty
-Pluralistic Deontology- seven prima facie duties which need to be taken into consideration when deciding what actions should be made
-Contractarian Ethics- moral acts are constructed from social agreements in order to maintain social order
Virtue Ethics- Focuses on the character of a person rather than the nature of their consequences.
-Eudaimonism- the well being of a person can only be achieved by their actions
-Agent-Based Theories- common sense is the main indicator of moral acts
-Ethics of Care- taking care of others, being patient, nurture others, and be able to self sacrifice
Descriptive Ethics- “What do people think is right?”
This approach observes the choices made by individuals, while also studying general beliefs about moral behavior. Though this concept can be used to argue philosophical ethical arguments, it is not intended to guide other’s behavior. It is sometimes referred to as “comparative ethics” because it compares the ethics of different societies
Applied Ethics- “How do we take moral knowledge and put it into practice?”
This discipline considers real-life situations and includes ideas from psychology, sociology, and similar areas.
-Medical Ethics- study of moral values and medicine
-Bioethics- ethics considered in biology as well as medicine
Legal ethics- studying code used in law
Business ethics- ethical issues in a business environment
environmental ethics- responsibilities of humans and the natural environment
information ethics- ethical issues in developing computers and technology
Media ethics- ethics in media
Meta-Ethics- “What does ‘right’ even mean?”
Meta-Ethics is concerned with the meaning of ethical judgements in addition to “understanding ethical properties, statements, attitudes and judgements,” (“Ethics - By Branch / Doctrine”, 2008). Moral realism and moral anti-realism are the two major meta-ethical views:
-Moral Realism- all moral values are objective and that is independent of individual beliefs
-Moral Anti-Realism- there are no objective moral values
Website Used:
http://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_ethics.html
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