Moral Relativism cannot and does not accept the idea that an objective moral system exists. If it did, you could evaluate other ethical systems meaningfully. A moral relativist would ask such questions as ‘what do we mean by wrong?’ when making a decision on something deemed wrong. Relativism is in direct contrast with absolute morality that is deontological, referring to looking at the action in itself. A moral relativist would believe that there is no definite set of rules that apply universally.
What are the motivating factors that affect our behavior and ultimately persuade us to make a moral decision? It can be said that societal mores, religious beliefs and cultural traditions influence our notion of right and wrong and help guide us through life. These fundamental experiences shape our perception of the world and help us develop our moral principles. With this being said, how do we reconcile the making of a decision that has moral implications and presents us with an ethical dilemma? Webster’s Dictionary defines an ethical dilemma as a situation that often involves an apparent conflict between moral imperatives, in which to obey one would result in transgressing another (“Ethical Dilemma”).
Meta ethics tries to make sense of the terms and concepts used in ethical theories. Some people believe that ethical language is extremely meaningful as they argue it is essential to be able to define terms such as “good” and “bad” before we can even begin to discuss ethical theories. However others disagree with this and argue that moral statements are subjective so cannot be meaningful as they cannot be described as either true or false. Those who hold cognitive theories about ethical language would argue that ethical statements are meaningful as they are about facts and can therefore be proved true or false. Ethical Naturalism is a cognitive theory of Meta ethics which holds the belief that ethical statements are the same as non ethical ones, so can be verified or falsified in the same way.
Ethical statements, Ayer said, cannot be verified analytically or synthetically so the truth of such phrases is unknowable and the language used is non-cognitive. Instead, ethical propositions can be no more that the expression of an emotion which will always be personal or subjective. For example to say “Abortion is good” is to express a subjective opinion about the moral issue of Abortion. For Ayer such statements can be no more than an expression of subjective emotion – leading some to label this approach to ethical language as the “boo hooray” theory. But does this strictly subjective understanding of ethical language and statements accurately reflect what is going on when we use such language?
Thus it is also a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school. In Ethics we deal with morality, in this case moral philosophy as a branch of philosophy. It is concerned with questions of how persons ought to act or if such questions are answerable. The main branches of ethics are Meta-ethics (sometimes called "analytic ethics"), normative ethics and applied ethics. Meta-ethics concerns the nature of ethical thought, comparison of various ethical systems, whether there are absolute ethical truths, and how such truths could be known.
Introduction Normative ethics is the branch of philosophy that theorizes the content of our moral judgments. While meta-ethics focuses on foundational issues concerning the semantics of moral utterance and how our moral views fit more broadly into a general conception of reality, normative ethics focuses on the major theoretical approaches to the content of moral reflection (Shaw, 1996) . It is shaped by the historical inheritance of the tradition of moral philosophy in the West in its focus on deontology, consequentialism, and virtue ethics as the major forms of normative ethical theory (Shaw,1996) . Normative theory is made up of three theories namely Consequentialist, Deontological and -Virtue ethical theories. Consequentialist tell us that it is the consequences of an action that makes the action morally permissible or not (Villanueva, 1994).
Law is something serious and the consequences can be fatal, moral could lead to hatred, boycott or prejudice from the society, if and only it has been breached. Law and morality has always link with each other. In the Hart-Devlin dispute, Hart argues that it is unnecessary to use laws to enforce morals because society was capable of containing many moral standpoints. Hart stated also that it is unacceptable to punish offender that do not cause harm to others and undesirable because it would prevent morality from changing. While Devlin argues that certain activities should be suppressed simply because it is immoral.
Is Ethical Egoism A Good Moral Theory? Umair Safdar 2017-11-0159 This paper will look forward to Ethical Egoism is a good moral theory or not. Firstly notion of Ethical Egoism and how it is different from Psychological Egoism will be discussed. Later it will discuss the Ayn Rand’s argument in the favor of ethical egoism and its validity. Next on the basis of James Rachel’s argument against ethical egoism will try to answer the question posed.
The word ‘ethics’ basically means moral values, it effects the way a person lives their life, and it also has an effect on decisions people make. ‘How to live a good life’, ‘our rights and responsibilities’, ‘the language of right and wrong’, ‘what is good and bad’, all of these come under ethics. People’s perception of ethics can differentiate from religions, philosophies, and cultures. Topics like abortion, professional conduct, and human rights are all debateable because of ethics. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/intro_1.shtml I think that ethics is acknowledging the difference between something right and wrong; it is a thinking procedure of deciding whether something shouldn’t or should be done.
MORAL EDUCATION: To fully understand the scope, nature and essence of moral education, it is very essential to understand foremost the meaning and definition of ‘Moral Education’. Loosely, one may say that moral education is a study/ understanding of what is right, moral, fair and ethical. However, the meaning runs deeper. So what exactly is moral education? What is moral?