CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS MORALITY?
1.1 Definition and Meaning
Ethics
seeks wisdom by asking about right and wrong, good and bad terms and
characteristics.
comes from the Greek ethos meaning character.
Morality derives from the Latin moralis meaning customs or manners.
Philosophical ethics
the study of what makes something moral or ethical, good or right, and unethical
or immoral bad or wrong.
Philosophers have considered what makes something morally good or bad, right
or wrong, in relation to a range of characteristics.
For example, does moral goodness involve some relation to happiness or
pleasure? Does the good involve excellence of some sort? Or harmony and
creativity? Is it possible to be amoral – of being indifferent to right and wrong? What
things are non-moral?
For example, my pen that I write with appears neither moral or immoral in itself but
if I use it as a weapon it enters the domain of morality.
1.2 Approaches to the Study of Morality
1. The scientific or descriptive - emphasizes the observation of human behavior
and the positing of conclusions based on those observations.
Psychologists, for example, have claimed that human beings are basically
selfish based on observations of conduct. This approach is descriptive in
that it is ‘value-free’ making no judgments about the rightness or wrongness
of the behavior.
2. Normative or Prescriptive – describes how should or ought we to act.
3. Metaethical (metaethicist) - analyses the language, concepts reasons and
foundational structure of ethical systems.
1.1 Definition and Meaning
Ethics
seeks wisdom by asking about right and wrong, good and bad terms and
characteristics.
comes from the Greek ethos meaning character.
Morality derives from the Latin moralis meaning customs or manners.
Philosophical ethics
the study of what makes something moral or ethical, good or right, and unethical
or immoral bad or wrong.
Philosophers have considered what makes something morally good or bad, right
or wrong, in relation to a range of characteristics.
For example, does moral goodness involve some relation to happiness or
pleasure? Does the good involve excellence of some sort? Or harmony and
creativity? Is it possible to be amoral – of being indifferent to right and wrong? What
things are non-moral?
For example, my pen that I write with appears neither moral or immoral in itself but
if I use it as a weapon it enters the domain of morality.
1.2 Approaches to the Study of Morality
1. The scientific or descriptive - emphasizes the observation of human behavior
and the positing of conclusions based on those observations.
Psychologists, for example, have claimed that human beings are basically
selfish based on observations of conduct. This approach is descriptive in
that it is ‘value-free’ making no judgments about the rightness or wrongness
of the behavior.
2. Normative or Prescriptive – describes how should or ought we to act.
3. Metaethical (metaethicist) - analyses the language, concepts reasons and
foundational structure of ethical systems.
