There are four main branches of ethics:
·
Descriptive
Ethics
·
Normative
Ethics
·
Applied
Ethics
·
Metaethics
Descriptive Ethics
This is when we simply look at the world and describe the moral beliefs
and values of different people. It is not philosophical because it does not
involve any analysis or evaluation – we are not making any judgements about
what people think is right or wrong, we are only taking note of what people actually
do believe is right and wrong, how they act, and why. Descriptive ethics is
purely factual and consists of statements such as the following:
·
In the
UK euthanasia is illegal. In Switzerland euthanasia is legal, but only in the
form of assisted suicide under the guidance of a doctor.
·
The
Roman Catholic Church teaches that abortion is wrong in all circumstances,
because it is the murder of an innocent human being.
·
Abortion
is legal in the UK, but only with the permission of two doctors and if the
abortion meets certain criteria, such as being a threat to the mother’s
physical or mental health. There are approximately 185,000 abortions per year
in Britain.
·
Alcohol
is forbidden by the Qur’an, and it is illegal in some Islamic countries such as
Saudi Arabia.
·
The
death penalty is still practiced in the USA, China, and Japan, amongst other
countries, whilst it is illegal throughout the EU.
·
In
various Middle Eastern countries it is common for young women to be killed by
their families for ‘dishonouring’ them, for instance, by having sex before
marriage. Around 12 honour killings happen in immigrant communities in the UK
per year.
Normative Ethics
Whereas Descriptive Ethics will
simply tell us facts about how people happen to act, and what they happen to
believe, it is in Normative Ethics that we begin to philosophise by making
judgements about what should happen, and attempting to justify them with
argumentation and persuasion. Whilst
Descriptive Ethics will simply note that abortion is legal in Britain, it is in
Normative Ethics that we make judgements about whether or not abortion is right
or wrong. Normative Ethics concerns how things should be, rather than how they are. When we are making decisions
about whether war is right or not, whether gay marriage should be allowed or
not, or indeed whether the rich should do more to help the poor, we are doing
Normative Ethics.
In order to help us make these
decisions a number of ethical theories have been invented which lay down
general principles to be applied across different moral decisions; these are
called Normative Theories. Six of the most important theories to get to grips
with during the IB Ethics course are Christian Ethics, Buddhist Ethics, Ethical
Egoism, Utilitarianism, and Kantian Ethics. Christian Ethics is largely based
on the teachings of the Bible, but also on the ideas of religious leaders and
thinkers; not all Christians will agree on the details, but there is large
agreement on most of the fundamental moral principles. The other four theories
states all try to define what is right and wrong without reference to religion,
but instead to decide ethical matters through means such as reason,
practicality, and empirical observation. As examples, Ethical Egoism says that
the right thing to is whatever is of greatest benefit to yourself, regardless
of how this affects others, whereas Utilitarianism says you must do what is of
greatest benefit for the human race at large in terms of creating happiness and
ending misery and suffering.
Applied Ethics
Applied Ethics is essentially a
sub-category of Normative Ethics as it is still about deciding which actions
are right and which are wrong, but the emphasis here is not making general
theories but looking at specific moral issues. Each moral issue, whether it be abortion,
euthanasia, war, same sex marriage, genetic engineering, or the use of animals
has its own unique complexities. Normative Theories are very important here as
we will be asking question like “what would Utilitarians say about euthanasia?”
and “what would Kant say about war?” As stated, each individual issue has its
own complexities, for example, when it comes to abortion one of the most
crucial debates is over whether a foetus counts as a proper human or ‘person’
or not yet. Some people claim that it is a proper human life, and therefore
that abortion is murder just as surely as killing a child or adult, but others
argue that it is not a proper person because it cannot survive on its own, or
it cannot think yet, and at the earliest stages it doesn’t even have a brain or
a human shape, therefore it is not murder. Solving these problems is an
interesting challenge and can often arouse passionate responses in people.
The main areas of Applied Ethics
we will look at in the IB course are:
·
Medical ethics
·
Wealth and poverty
·
The environment
This means that we will be
covering issues such as euthanasia, abortion, organ donation, IVF, stem cell
research, genetic modification, charity, Capitalism Vs. Communism, the
treatment of animals, and the treatment of the environment.
Metaethics
Metaethics looks at the
underlying assumptions of Normative Ethics, and the foundations of morality
itself. It is quite often very theoretical and in many ways is the most
complicated branch of ethics. One topic within metaethics is the exploration of
moral language, for instance, what do words like justice, fairness, love, evil, good, right, wrong, and virtuous actually mean?
Perhaps the most important issue
in metaethics is where morality actually comes from in the first place. Almost
everyone follows moral rules or moral intuitions, but where do these originally
come from? Are thinks like kindness and respect for others implanted in our DNA
or are they taught to us by our parents? Is morality just a product of culture?
Is morality something placed into us by God or given to us through his / her
commandments? Is morality down to practical reasoning about how to achieve
common goals like prosperity and survival? Is morality nothing but our
emotional reactions to seeing things we like or dislike? Connected to this
problem of the origins of morality is the issue of moral truth; when we say
“murder is wrong” is that actually a fact or is it just an opinion? Does
morality really exist or is it all just an illusion? There are some who say
that right and wrong is all made up and when it comes down to it there is no
reason not to just do whatever you want, so long as you can get away with it at
least.
Yet another issue of huge
importance is whether morality is universal or culturally relative. Descriptive
Ethics easily shows us that there are variations in what people think is right
and wrong across the world, and across time, but some ethicists argue that
there are similarities in moral systems, trans-cultural moral principles such
as the Golden Rule (treat others the way you want to be treated). Some
ethicists believe that everyone should follow the same moral rules, for
example, that human rights should be universal and torture or forced marriages
shouldn’t be happening anywhere, but others take the Cultural Relativist view
that each culture is entitled to make and follow its own rules. Metaethicists
argue over who is correct in issues such as these.
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