Philosophy (moral) Or Ethics

PHILOSOPHY (MORAL) or ETHICS

DEFINITIONS OF ETHICS and of ETHICAL TYPES

ETHICS is the philosophical study of moral phenomena and often described as MORAL philosophy, for this my primary source was a dictionary of philosophy edited by my undergraduate philosophy teacher Professor Anthony Flew(1979).

TO PARAPHRASE : To the layman ETHICS suggests a set of standards by which a particular group or community decides to regulate it`s behaviour - to distinguish what is legitimate or acceptable in pursuit of their aims from what is not.

In a philosophical context `ethics` has clear connections, though not identical - like all philosophical endeavour it is an investigation into fundamental principles and basic concepts that are or aught to be found in a given field of human activity being philosophical it is theoretical, in this respect it differs from the lay sense such as Christianity in that it is intended as a practical guide.

We can identify 3 main branches : NORMATIVE ETHICS (morally right or what aught to be), APPLIED ETHICS (examines concrete ethical problems in real world situations - e.g medical or business ethics), META ETHICS (examines underlying assumptions and concepts).

In more detail we can categorise the following ethical types:

DE-ONTOLOGICAL ETHICS : moral theories according to which certain acts must or must not be done, regardless to some extent of the consequence of their performance or non performance. Certain acts are right or wrong in themselves, i.e breaking a promise is wrong. Problems arise concerning the difference between the RIGHT and the GOOD, examples include Kantian ethics (see below).

AXIOLOGICAL ETHICS : concerned with the VALUES (goodness), concerned with what is worth pursuing or promoting or avoided, along with issues of what questions mean. Presently centres on epistemology (if any) of values or questioning the moral grounds on which we base ethical judgements on, often contrasted with Kantian ethics (see below).

APPLIED ETHICS : dealing with practical or applied questions.

BELIEF ETHICS : a set of rules used in evaluating doxastic states relating to belief as opposed to knowledge or facts (doxa - a Greek word signifying opinions, belief or doubt, conjecture, estimates).

ETHICAL RELATIVISM : moral appraisals (judgements) are essentially dependant upon the standards defined in the moral code being followed.

ETHICAL SUBJECTIVISM and OBJECTIVISM : on a spectrum from OBJECTIVISM, moral judgements can be rationally defensible, true or false, that there are moral values that exist independent of the feelings - states of particular times (subjectivism) develop.

ETHICAL VOLUNTARISM : the will over one`s other mental faculty. This is the view that judgements over whether an act is right or wrong depends how the act is willed and consequences are judged dependent upon goodness of the will that produced the act. Generally Kantian ethics are hospitable to this view.

KANTIAN ETHICS : Ethical theories which have their origins in, or are constructively influenced by the moral philosophy of Kant (1724 - 1804), essentially that moral judgements are expressions of practical as distinct from theoretical reason. This gives rise to `CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVES` (duties binding unconditionally) as distinct from `HYPOTHETICAL IMPERATIVES` or commands of reason binding in certain conditions or dependant upon desires e.g `Catch the 9.15 if you want to arrive by noon` or the `maxim` implied by a proposed action must be such that one can will that it became a universal law of nature. Kant seems to hold that the idea of UNIVERSALZABILITY is both necessary and sufficient, in the modern world The Golden Rule (ethics), uniformity of nature (in science), equality before the law (jurisprudence), logical form (in deductive proof), reasonableness (common sense reasoning).

ETHICAL NATURALISM : generally consider everything is NATURAL, the term often applied in 2 main ways - the more specific as previous and deals with rejecting non natural properties. Th more general which involves both the subject studied and the methods in studying them i.e metaphysics and epistemology. In metaphysics naturalism is most akin to materialism (basically everything is made of matter - atoms). The world of nature should form a single sphere without incursions from outside souls or spirits, divine or human. It does not reject the phenomena of consciousness which can be studied by the science of psychology. The main thrust of naturalism is epistemology, this has been taken to mean how we can properly understand the world or `how do you know ?` rather than `why we believe ?` evokes the world of empiricism, more succinctly you cannot derive `aught` (NORMATIVE) from `is` examples include Utilitarianism and Logical Fallacy. Additional types that can be derived from the aforementioned ethical types or methods in studying the types o applying ethical codes to real world situations or practical situations . These include : BIO ETHICS, MEDICAL ETHICS (including confidentiality in healthcare) , ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS, BUSINESS ETHICS, these will be developed in later articles on ETHICS or MORAL PHILOSOPHY, or contact me via tutor hunt for tutorial advice and discussion.

Major sources : Google, Wikipedia, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Pan Reference - A dictionary of