Scribd
Upload
3 views1 page

Overview of Ethical Theories and Types

The document outlines the discipline of ethics, which deals with moral values and principles. It identifies three main types of ethics: descriptive ethics, which studies beliefs about morality; normative ethics, which determines what is morally right and wrong; and applied ethics, which addresses real-world ethical issues. Each type serves a different purpose in understanding and evaluating moral behavior and standards.

Uploaded by

habib kawsar
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
3 views1 page

Overview of Ethical Theories and Types

The document outlines the discipline of ethics, which deals with moral values and principles. It identifies three main types of ethics: descriptive ethics, which studies beliefs about morality; normative ethics, which determines what is morally right and wrong; and applied ethics, which addresses real-world ethical issues. Each type serves a different purpose in understanding and evaluating moral behavior and standards.

Uploaded by

habib kawsar
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Ethics, the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad and morally right and wrong.

The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles.
There are three main types of ethics:
1. Descriptive ethics, which studies people's beliefs about morality. This type of ethics
simply describes how people behave and/or what sorts of moral standards they claim to
follow. Descriptive ethics incorporates research from the fields of anthropology,
psychology, sociology and history as part of the process of understanding what people
do or have believed about moral norms.

2. Normative ethics or Meta ethics, which is concerned with determining what is morally
right and wrong. It addresses fundamental questions about the nature and definitions of
ethical concepts. This category of normative ethics involves creating or evaluating moral
standards. Thus, it is an attempt to figure out what people should do or whether their
current moral behavior is reasonable. Traditionally, most of the field of moral philosophy
has involved normative ethics - there are few philosophers out there who haven't tried
their hand at explaining what they think people should do and why.
The category of analytic ethics, also often referred to as meta-ethics, is perhaps the
most difficult of the three to understand.

3. Applied ethics, applied ethics is a field of study that examines how ethical theories and
moral principles can be used to address real-world problems or questions. In contrast to
theoretical ethics which asks abstract questions about what is right and wrong, applied
ethics concerns itself with specific and practical questions such as:
Under what conditions is the use of gene editing technologies such as CRISPR ethically
permissible?
What circumstances dictate whether economic development can be justified over
environmental preservation, and vice versa?
What responsibilities do nations have for providing foreign aid to countries in need?

You might also like