Ethics and Morality: A Philosophical Inquiry
Ethics and Morality
Ethics and Moral Definition: The determination of good and evil from a moral standpoint, establishing principles and standards that serve as criteria for individual rights and duties.
Morality vs. Ethics
Practical Level (Morality): A set of values and norms prevalent in a society. Morality is concrete and practical, linked to life, and enables coexistence within a society. A moral code guides human actions and comprises values and norms.
Theoretical Level (Ethics): The theoretical branch of philosophy that investigates morality. Through critical reflection, ethics attempts to rationally ground and justify morality. Unlike morality, ethics hasn’t always existed. Rational reflection on morality emerged with philosophy.
Objects of Study for Ethics:
- Specificity of moral action against other types of conduct
- Good and evil of human actions
- Justification for moral norms and values
- Precise meaning and correct use of ethical language (meta-ethics)
Values
Ideals apprehended through intuition, demanding compliance and determining the value of reality.
Knowledge: Prescriptive and Evaluative Judgments
These judgments are listed impersonally, expressing an obligation or general rule. They prescribe something, either as a mandate or prohibition.
Moral Norms
Rules determining moral actions. Every moral rule expresses a value.
Types of Norms
- Hypothetical Rules: Assert or deny something based on a condition. The action is a means to an end.
- Conventional Rules (Social, Legal): Objective and universal, unchanging.
- Categorical Rules: Assert or deny something outright, unconditionally.
Value Judgments
Judgments expressing values, assessing something as morally good or bad (e.g., good-bad, just-unjust, moral-immoral).
Judgments of Fact
Informative judgments describing situations or events without judgment or evaluation. They use informative and descriptive language.
Characteristics of Judgments of Fact:
- Objective: Accepted by all, based on logic and experience.
- Verifiable: Can be true or false.
All moral judgments are evaluative, but not all value judgments are moral. For an evaluative judgment to be moral:
- It must judge an action as good or bad.
- It must relate to a moral standard.
- It must be applicable to all similar circumstances.
- It is not true or false, but right or wrong.
Moral Sociologism
Considers moral rules as products of social agreement. Socially accepted norms define good and bad. Moral norms are not universal or absolute.
Moral Subjectivism
The meaning of good and bad depends on individual perspectives. Emotivism suggests moral standards express feelings.
Moral Objectivism
Believes moral standards are objective and universally valid, known through intuition.
Moral Conscience
Requires a criterion to justify a value or rule. A heteronomous conscience follows external dictates, while an autonomous conscience follows self-determined values.
Moral Autonomy
Occurs when an individual freely and voluntarily obeys a sense of duty.
Moral Heteronomy
Occurs when moral standards originate from external sources like tradition, power, or authority.