Normative Ethics

Submitted By amberanndunn
Words: 2124
Pages: 9

Chapter 1 2) Everyday human beings are using ethics and may not even realize it. Ethics defines everything we believe in and make a stand for. It defines what is right or wrong, good and bad, and what judgments that we may make. Ethics defines our values and makes us into the person that we are. Everything that we hold dear to us is at stake when we do ethics. It helps us what decisions to make and what is more important, or a better decision. 4) Yes, your feelings can be your sole guide to morality. If you believe something like abortion is wrong, then it is wrong. Ethics causes you to think deeply about a moral or immoral subject, which is usually created by your feelings. 6) Normative ethics is the study of principles, rules, or theories that guide our actions and judgments. The purpose of normative ethics is to establish the soundness of moral norms, or theory. We do normative ethics when doing critical reasoning to demonstrate that a moral principle is justified or if it is contradictory. Applied ethics is the application of moral norms to specific moral issues or cases, usually those in a profession such as medicine or law. By using applied ethics we study the results derived from applying a moral principle of theory to specific circumstances. An example of applied ethics is questioning if a Dr. was in the right to perform an abortion. 8) Every division of ethics involves values and obligations. We must be careful to often distinguish between the two. Sometimes we are interested in concepts r judgments of value, about what is morally bad, good, blameworthy, or praiseworthy. We properly use these terms when referring to some one’s character traits, motives, and intentions. 10) Instrumental value means that there is value to something else. This would be something that holds value but is not necessarily valuable, like a pen, gasoline, or paper. Intrinsically valuable means they are valuable in themselves. This would include happiness, pleasure, virtue, and beauty. 12) The principle of universalizability is the idea that a moral statement that applies in one situation must apply in all other situations that are relatively similar. For example, if you say lying in wrong in a situation, then you implicitly agree that lying is wrong for any other type of similar situation. It cannot be the case that an action performed by is wrong, while the same action performed by another in a relevantly similar situation is right.
Chapter 2 2) Moral absolutism is a view that says you need not hold that the objective principles are rigid rules that have no exceptions or, that they must be applied in exactly the same way in every culture and situation. Objectivism is the view that some moral principles are valid for everyone. Moral absolutism is not needed through objectivism. 4) Omotivism is the view that moral utterances are neither true nor false but are expressions of emotions or attitudes. Objectivism believes that they are moral priniciples that are valid for everyone, while omotivism believes that everyone holds their very own moral principles, and that while they may be similar, no one will hold the same moral princibles. 6) Moral subjectivism is stating that in each of our own opinion and moral judgments, that we are not wrong. According to subjective relativism each person is incapable of being in error. Each of us is morally infallible. If we approve of an action then that action is morally right. 8) Everyone’s judgments about right and wrong differ from culture to culture. If people’s judgments about right and wrong differ, then right and wrong are relative to culture, and there are no moral principles. This shows that right and wrong are relative to culture, and that there are no objective moral principles. 10) A connection between cultural relevance and tolerance is completely necessary. Tolerance seems a supreme virtue, and cultural relativism appears to