Facts about Ethics
Recent philosophical discussion of the treatment of animals provides a clear example of the practical value of applied ethics.
One possible answer canvassed by meta-ethics is that moral rules are nothing other than social conventions of particular cultural groups.
Kantian ethics emphasizes respect for persons, and holds that there are (in contrast with utilitarianism) certain actions that should never be done.
Normative ethics is concerned with moral norms in the sense of standards with which moral agents ought to comply.
So it seems that ethics, especially in the sense of moral obligation, presupposes that human beings have free will.
Norms may take the form of customs, the society's web of cultural rituals, traditions, and routines.
Applied ethics involves the application of normative ethical theories to particular issues of practical concern such as abortion, euthanasia, criminal punishment, and the treatment of animals.
Ethics (from the Greek ethos – custom) in the sense of systems of value and codes of conduct have always been part of human societies.
One important point of contact between ethics and metaphysics is the problem of free will.
Today, after a period of relative neglect in the first half of the twentieth century, interest in applied ethics enjoys tremendous growth.
Virtue ethics, following Aristotle, downplays or even denies the existence of universal rules to which actions must conform.
According to virtue ethics, morality is not fundamentally about following rules, but rather about cultivating virtuous dispositions of character.
The reader is referred to the article entries on the important topics of applied ethics.
Kant’s ethics has also had an important influence on political philosophers such as John Rawls.
The third main branch of philosophical ethics—applied ethics—is very practical, aiming to apply the results of normative ethics to everyday life.
By contrast, normative ethics aims to provide specific guidelines for action by constructing theories about what makes actions right and wrong.
The fundamental principle of Kant’s ethics is the Categorical Imperative, which is said to underlie all commonly recognized moral principles.
Similarly controversial results have been obtained in other areas, and by the application of different ethical theories such Kantianism and Virtue Ethics.
Philosophical ethics (also called moral philosophy) is divided into three main areas of inquiry: (1) meta-ethics, (2) normative ethics, and (3) applied ethics.
Norms may take the form of customs, the society's web of cultural rituals, traditions, and routines.
By contrast, deontological theories, of which Kant’s ethics is the best-known example, do not explain right action in terms of the promotion of good.