5 branches of philosophy

1. Epistemology

2. Metaphysics

3. Ethics

4. Aesthetics

5. Logic

Epistemology

- study of knowledge

Metaphysics

- meta: beyond

- Study of the nature of reality

Ethics

- norms of right and wrong

- Study of morality

Aesthetics

- study of beauty

- no one can dictate what true beauty is

Logic

- argument and reasoning

Ethics

- focuses on dilemmas

Ethics

- ethos: character

- individual character

- domain of philosophy

Morality

- moralis

- human relations

- domain of theology

Characteristics of Ethics

1. Amoral

- being indifferent to right and wrong

- having no sense of right and wrong

- criminals/people with psychological

trauma

2. Nonmoral

- out of the realm of morality altogether

- they think what they are doing is good

- inanimate objects that can be used

immorally

- gun, knife

-
Scientific Approach to the Study of
Morality
- approach is most often used in the social
sciences and deals with human behaviour
and conduct
being
4 ASPECTS OF THE APPLICATION OF
MORALITY
- religious morality is concerned with human
beings in relationship to a supernatural

• philosophy
- morality and nature are concerned with
- observers make no value judgments as to human beings in relationship to nature

what is morally right or wrong

- individual morality is concerned with
human beings in relationship to
Philosophical Approach to ethics themselves

NORMATIVE ETHICS
- social morality is concerned with human
- deals with norms (or standards) and beings in relationship to other human
prescriptions of society
beings

- goes beyond observation and description • most important category

and makes normative moral value

judgments

- social contract : exchanging your

freedom for protection

ANALYTIC ETHICS
- analyzes ethical language and the rational
foundations of ethical system

- studying how to answer the situation than

the situation itself

SYNTHESIS OF APPROACHES
- ethics demands a reasonable synthesis of
ethical views

• descriptive, normative, metaethical

approaches

- beyond ethics

• draw on data and results of experiments

from the natural, physical, and social
sciences

- theories

- must also examine their language, logic,

and foundations

- ethicists should contribute something

toward helping all human beings live with
each other more meaningfully and more
ethically

Morality and its Applications

- there is a difference between ethics and
aesthetics

- the terms good, bad, right, and wrong can

be used in a nonmoral sense, usually in
references to how someone or something
functions

- manners or etiquette differs from morality

even though the two are related

• manners depend on culture