Normative Ethics: (Ethics - Part Two)

Normative ethics searches for norms using authoritative standards (rules) of what ought to be.

Types of Normative Ethics:
A. Hedonism: the view that in the end it only matters if it is pleasurable. It is good if it feels good.

B. Utilitarianism: the theory that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the test of right and wrong.

C. Perfectionism: the ultimate end is the full development or perfection of the self.

D. Some theories do not readily fall under the above classification. One such is the theological theory: that it is the will of God that determines whether an action is right or wrong.

E. Immanuel Kant: for one's action to be morally right, it must be seen as a universal law. That is, be willing to have everyone act in the same way (Categorical Imperative).

F. Egoism: (Thomas Hobbes) Everyone acts always out of self-interest, maintains that an action is right only if it is in the interest of the agent. I.E. Why should I be moral? What's in it for me?

Other Branches of Ethics:

• Descriptive ethics (a department of empirical science, akin to sociology) aims to discover what moral beliefs are held in a given culture.
• Metaethics: Study of ethics. Can we analyze moral concepts without bringing our own moral beliefs into the argument?
• Moral skepticism: the view that there is no one correct moral code for all times and peoples, that each group has its own morality relative to its wants and values, and that all moral ideas are necessarily relative to a particular culture.

A. Accordingly, cannibals are justified in eating human beings by the standards of their own culture even if not by the standards of Western culture
–There is no basis for claiming that the standards of Western culture are superior to other cultures.

B. Relativism: If there is no right or wrong that can be determined apart from the conventions of one's own culture, the question arises of what ought to be done when different cultures come into conflict.
--Among the cannibals should I do as the cannibals do or should I act according to the standards of my own culture?

Still Other Areas:

1. Religious Ethics: There can be no morality without religion, because without God there can be no reason to be moral.

2. Social Ethics: Must we obey the law? Is following the rules/mores of society correct? The case of pro-choice/anti-abortion is a social ethical issue.

3. Professional Ethics
Professionals such as teachers, doctors, priests (clergy), lawyers, journalists, etc. face ethical issues in the practice of their profession. Some groups have formal codes of ethics (such as the Hippocratic Oath) that set forth a set of moral standards for the profession.

New fields of ethics, such as bioethics, engineering ethics, and environmental ethics, deal with issues not previously focused on before the latter 20th century:

• Animal rights
• Cloning
• Stem cell research
• Offshore drilling

from the Hippocratic Oath: I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
I will respect the privacy of my patients,
Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of society with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

Engineering oath: Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall: Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.

Catholic Priest Oath
Educator's Oath (sample)
Information about Loyalty Oaths