Video Discussion

Meta-ethicists distinguish two types of ethics:

1. Normative

● Determines what moral standards to follow so that our actions may be morally right or
good
● Prescriptive ethics - they prescribe what norms to follow
● Types:
○ General Normative Ethics
■ Reasoned search for principles of human conduct
■ A critical study of the major theories about what things are good, what
acts are right and what acts are evil
■ Attempts to determine what moral standards to follow so that our
actions may be morally right or good
■ Tries to defend a system of basic ethical principles that presumably are
valid for everyone
■ Teleological (Consequential)
■ Deontological (Non-consequential)
○ Applied Normative Ethics
■ An attempt to explain and justify positions on specific moral problems or
issues
■ Uses general ethical principles in an attempt to resolve a specific moral
problem or apply ethical principle to situations
■ Bioethics, environmental ethics, professional ethics, legal ethics,
business ethics

2. Non-Normative

● Either describes or evaluates moral attitudes or statements

● How we do ethics
● Types:
○ Descriptive/Scientific
■ Describes what ethics is
■ Scientific or descriptive study of morality which involves the factual
investigation of moral behavior; concerned with how people do in fact
behave
■ Anthropologists and sociologists investigate and describe moral
attitudes, how moral attitudes and codes differ from society to society, and
investigating and describing the values and behaviors of different
societies
■ Categories
 1. Absolutism
1. There is a universal moral code common to all
2. Relativism
1. Different cultures, different norms
2. Different societies, different moral code
○ Metha-ethics
■ Discipline that studies ethics as a discipline
■ Meta - (beyond/after)
1. Thus, beyond or above ethics; a view from below
■ A higher perspective so that you can see or examined what is below
■ Evaluates what ethics is all about, what ethics is doing
■ Highly technical discipline that investigates the meaning of ethical terms
1. Includes a critical study of how ethical statements can be verified
■ Concerned with the meaning of such terms such as right, obligation,
responsibility, etc.
■ Does not propose any moral principles or norms for action; consists
solely of philosophical analysis
■ Positions
1. Naturalism - maintains that ethical statements (statements with
moral valuation/assessment) can be translated into non-ethical
statements (statements without moral valuation/assessment)

Ethical: Corruption is evil.

Non-Ethical: A person disapproves corruption.

Kinds of Naturalism

1. Autobiographical Naturalism - ethical statements only

express the approval or disapproval of the speaker.

Example: When a person says “killing is bad”, he means

he disapproves killing.

2. Sociological Naturalism - ethical statement simply

expresses the approval or disapproval of the majority.

Example: “Killing is bad.” = the majority dislikes killing

3. Theological Naturalism - ethical statement expresses a

divine approval or disapproval.

Example: “Killing is bad.” = God or some divine being

 disapproves killing.

2. Non-Naturalism - ethical statement cannot be translated into a

non-ethical form.

Some ethical terms can only be defined in terms of other ethical

words.

However, they cannot be verified as true or false but can only

be believed.

Example: Statements like “King was right.” can be translated into

other ethical statements such as “King’s action was proper.” or
“King’s action was good.”

3. Emotivism or Non-Cognitivism - ethical statements are used

to evoke a predetermined emotive response or to encourage a
predetermined behavior.

They can be used to make someone feel or behave a certain way.

Example: Statement like “cheating is bad” is meant to say, “do not

cheat.”

1.) What do you think is the most crucial issue in legal ethics? Why?