Ethics is the discussion of right and wrong. In Europe, it’s black and white, while in the Far East, it’s less absolute. Metaethics defines the origin of ethics, with two views: real world and spirit world. Normative ethics seeks a moral standard to regulate conduct, including virtuous, dutiful, and consequential ethics. Applied ethics applies normative theories to ethical dilemmas.
A philosophy of ethics is a discussion of right and wrong. In European culture, the idea of right and wrong is black and white. In the Far East, in countries like China and Japan, the lines between right and wrong are less absolute. Ethics is an important element of philosophical thinking, which has occupied the minds of thinkers for millennia.
The history of European philosophical thoughts on ethics comes from the Greek philosophers. These included Socrates in his discussions with Plato, who thought that if people knew right and wrong, they would do good. It also included Aristotle, who believed that frustrated potential caused many ethical violations. Right and wrong became more important philosophical thoughts during the Christian period.
Metaethics seeks to define the origin of the philosophy of ethics. Thought on metaethics is divided into two churches of thought. The first is the real world and the other is the spirit world.
The spirit or otherworldly view holds that ethics derive from God or many gods. If the Gods bequeathed ethical standards to humans, then ethics are static and indisputable rules. They won’t change over time. They are also objective and without human interference. Plato compared this ethics to mathematics, according to which 1 plus 1 will always equal 2.
Real world ethics are subjective and depend on humanity. Philosophers such as Empiricus are skeptical of God-given ethics, but they do not rule it out. Instead, they believe that the philosophy of ethics comes from two sources: the individual and the culture. Friedrich Nietzsche argued for the role of the individual in ethics while Michael Montaigne argued for the impact of society on the individual.
Normative ethics seek a moral standard to regulate conduct. The classic case of normative ethics in the philosophy of ethics is where no human being should do to another what he would not have done to himself. In normative ethics, there are three broad types of morality: the virtuous, the dutiful, and the consequential.
Plato believed in the virtuous. By virtue, good habits rather than rules create an ethical person who does not make mistakes. Plato believed in four cardinal virtues. These are wisdom, courage, justice and temperance.
Obligation forms a huge part of the ethics of duty. With duty, ethics are regulated based on one individual’s ties to another. Such ties include those between family, friends, local communities and those in the same group. Samuel von Pufendorf divided such ethics into absolute duties and conditional duties.
Consequential ethics is concerned with how an individual or group regulates its conduct according to the rules in force. This means they may not necessarily agree with the ethical standard, but fear the consequences of not meeting it. A motorist may disagree with parking laws, but will park in the appropriate location to avoid a fine. Similarly, a rich man may give money to charity not out of altruism, but for the rewards of his generosity.
The last type of ethics is applied ethics. This is a philosophy of ethics in which normative theories are applied to a single ethical dilemma. For example, this could relate to abortion or capital punishment. The problem with applied ethics is that there are many rival ethical and moral codes at play.
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