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Ethics

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Environment; Philosophy

   Ethics (from the Ancient Greek "ethikos", meaning "arising from
   habit"), a major branch of philosophy, is the study of value or
   quality. It covers the analysis and employment of concepts such as
   right, wrong, good, evil, and responsibility. It is divided into three
   primary areas: meta-ethics (the study of the concept of ethics),
   normative ethics (the study of how to determine ethical values), and
   applied ethics (the study of the use of ethical values).

Meta-ethics

   There are two main strands of thought attempting to explain what
   ethical values and claims are actually about.

   One group is classed as non-realist, because they suggest moral value
   rests on people's feelings about themselves and others (emotivism or
   prescriptivism) or their belief systems (cultural or individual
   relativism). One particular theory suggests that moral value rests on
   the will of a deity. Despite the name, such theories may see reality as
   shaping the human choice of ethical values (e.g. indirectly by the
   evolutionary or developmental shaping of human psychology, or directly
   through people assessing and debating the likely consequences of their
   actions).

   Another group, by contrast, holds that moral value is somehow an
   intrinsic property of the world and that moral principles are
   discovered or intuited. In this view, what humans think or feel about
   those values makes no difference to their existance and correctness.
   These theories may be derived from theology or naturalism.

Normative ethics

   Normative ethics bridges the gap between meta-ethics and applied
   ethics. It is the attempt to arrive at general moral standards that
   tell us how to judge right from wrong, or good from bad, and how to
   live moral lives. This may involve articulating the character or good
   habits that we should acquire, the duties that we should follow, or the
   consequences of our behaviour on ourselves and others.

   Normative ethicists who follow the first approach are often called
   virtue ethicists, and articulate the various virtues or good habits
   that should be acquired. Aristotle is a pioneer virtue ethicist.

   Normative ethicists who follow the second approach are often called
   deontological ethicists. Immanuel Kant set out the large framework for
   a deontological normative ethical theory.

   Normative ethicists who follow the third approach are often called
   consequentialists or (specifically in regard to the theory of the
   greatest good for the greatest number) utilitarians, and John Stuart
   Mill set out a large framework for a utilitarian normative ethics.

Descriptive ethics

   Some philosophers rely on descriptive ethics and choices made and
   unchallenged by a society or culture to derive categories, which
   typically vary by context. This leads to situational ethics and
   situated ethics. These philosophers often view aesthetics, etiquette,
   and arbitration as more fundamental, percolating "bottom up" to imply,
   rather than explicitly state, theories of value or of conduct. In these
   views ethics is not derived from a top-down a priori "philosophy" (many
   would reject that word) but rather is strictly derived from
   observations of actual choices made in practice:
     * Ethical codes applied by various groups. Some consider aesthetics
       itself the basis of ethics – and a personal moral core developed
       through art and storytelling as very influential in one's later
       ethical choices.
     * Informal theories of etiquette which tend to be less rigorous and
       more situational. Some consider etiquette a simple negative ethics,
       i.e. where can one evade an uncomfortable truth without doing
       wrong? One notable advocate of this view is Judith Martin ("Miss
       Manners"). In this view, ethics is more a summary of common sense
       social decisions.
     * Practices in arbitration and law,e.g. the claim that ethics itself
       is a matter of balancing "right versus right," i.e. putting
       priorities on two things that are both right, but which must be
       traded off carefully in each situation. This view many consider to
       have potential to reform ethics as a practice, but it is not as
       widely held as the 'aesthetic' or 'common sense' views listed
       above.
     * Observed choices made by ordinary people, without expert aid or
       advice, who vote, buy, and decide what is worth fighting about.
       This is a major concern of sociology, political science, and
       economics.

   Those who embrace such descriptive approaches tend to reject overtly
   normative ones. There are exceptions, such as the movement to more
   moral purchasing.

Applied ethics

Opposing forms

   One form of applied ethics applies normative ethical theories to
   specific controversial issues. In these cases, the ethicist adopts a
   defensible theoretical framework, and then derives normative advice by
   applying the theory. However, many persons and situations, notably
   traditional religionists and lawyers, find this approach either against
   accepted religious doctrine or impractical because it does not conform
   to existing laws and court decisions.

   Casuistry is a completely different form of applied ethics that is
   widely used in these cases and by these groups. Casuists compare moral
   dilemmas to well established cases (sometimes called paradigms). The
   well-established methods for coping with the well-established cases are
   then adapted to the case at hand.

Ethics by cases

   A common approach in applied ethics is to deal with individual issues
   on a case-by-case basis.

   Casuistry is the application of case-based reasoning to applied ethics.
   Almost all American states have tried to discourage dishonest practices
   by their public employees and elected officials by establishing an
   Ethics Commission for their state.

   Bernard Crick in 1982 offered a socially-centered view, that politics
   was the only applied ethics, that it was how cases were really
   resolved, and that " political virtues" were in fact necessary in all
   matters where human morality and interests were destined to clash.

   The lines of distinction between meta-ethics, normative ethics, and
   applied ethics are often blurry. For example, the issue of abortion is
   an applied ethical topic since it involves a specific type of
   controversial behaviour. But it also depends on more general normative
   principles, such as the right of self-rule and the right to life, which
   are litmus tests for determining the morality of that procedure. The
   issue also rests on metaethical issues such as, "where do rights come
   from?" and "what kind of beings have rights?"

   Another concept which blurs ethics is moral luck. A drunk driver may
   safely reach home without injuring anyone, or he might accidentally
   kill a child who runs out into the street while he is driving home. How
   bad the action of driving while drunk is in that case depends on
   chance.

   The special virtue of casuistry over applied moral theory is that
   groups and individuals often disagree about theories, but may
   nonetheless have remarkably similar paradigms. Thus, they may be able
   to achieve substantial social agreement about actions, even though
   their theories are incompatible. This may be why casuistry is the
   foundation of many legal systems. Casuistry is essentially based on
   applying paradigms to individual cases on their own merits.

Specific questions

   The ethical problems attacked by applied ethicists (of whatever sort)
   often bear directly on public policy. For example, the following would
   be questions of applied ethics: "Is getting an abortion ever moral?"
   "Is euthanasia ever moral?" "What are the ethical underpinnings of
   affirmative action policies?" "What are human rights, and how do we
   determine them?" and "Do 'other animals' have rights as well?"

   A more specific question could be: "If someone else can make better out
   of his/her life than I can, is it then moral to sacrifice myself for
   them if needed?"

   Without these questions there is no clear fulcrum on which to balance
   law, politics, and the practice of arbitration—in fact, no common
   assumptions of all participants—so the ability to formulate the
   questions are prior to rights balancing.

   But not all questions studied in applied ethics concern public policy.
   For example, making ethical judgments regarding questions such as, "Is
   lying always wrong?" and, "If not, when is it permissible?" is prior to
   any etiquette.

Ethics in politics and economics

   Ethics has been applied to economics, politics and political science,
   leading to several distinct and unrelated fields of applied ethics,
   including business ethics and Marxism. American corporate scandals such
   as Enron and Global Crossings are illustrative of the interplay between
   ethics and business. Ethical inquiries into the fraud perpetrated by
   corporate senior executive officers (e.g., Enron's Kenneth Lay) are a
   growing trend and the situational ethics of employees, no matter how
   junior, who follow their unreasonable and/or illegal directives has
   also come to the fore.

   Ethics has been applied to family structure, sexuality, and how society
   views the roles of individuals; leading to several distinct and
   unrelated fields of applied ethics, including feminism.

   Ethics has been applied to war, leading to the fields of pacifism and
   nonviolence.

   Often, such efforts take legal or political form before they are
   understood as works of normative ethics. The UN Declaration of
   Universal Human Rights of 1948 and the Global Green Charter of 2001 are
   two such examples. However, as war and the development of weapon
   technology continues, it seems clear that no nonviolent means of
   dispute resolution is accepted by all.

   The need to redefine and align politics away from ideology and towards
   dispute resolution was a motive for Bernard Crick's list of political
   virtues.

Environmental ethics

   Ethics has been applied to analyze human use of Earth's limited
   resources. This has led to the study of environmental ethics and social
   ecology. A growing trend has been to combine the study of both ecology
   and economics to help provide a basis for sustainable decisions on
   environmental use. This has led to the theories of ecological footprint
   and bioregional autonomy. Political and social movements based on such
   ideas include eco-feminism, eco-anarchism, deep ecology, the green
   movement, and ideas about their possible integration into Gaia
   philosophy.

Ethics in the professions

   There are several sub-branches of applied ethics examining the ethical
   problems of different professions, such as business ethics, medical
   ethics, journalism ethics, engineering ethics and legal ethics, while
   technology assessment and environmental assessment study the effects
   and implications of new technologies or projects on nature and society.

   Each branch characterizes common issues and problems that arise in the
   ethical codes of the professions, and defines their common
   responsibility to the public, e.g. to preserve its natural capital, or
   to obey some social expectations of honest dealings and disclosure.

Ethics in health care

   One of the major areas where ethicists practice is in the field of
   health care. This includes medicine, nursing, pharmacy, genetics, and
   other allied health professions. Example issues are euthanasia,
   abortion, medical research, vaccine trials, stem cell research,
   informed consent, truth telling, patient rights and autonomy, rationing
   of health care (such as triage).

Ethics in psychology

   By the 1960s there was increased interest in moral reasoning.
   Psychologists such as Lawrence Kohlberg developed theories which are
   based on the idea that moral behaviour is made possible by moral
   reasoning. Their theories subdivided moral reasoning into so-called
   stages, which refer to the set of principles or methods that a person
   uses for ethical judgment. The first and most famous theory of this
   type was Kohlberg's theory of moral development.

   Carol Gilligan, a student of Kohlberg's, argued that women tend to
   develop through a different set of stages from men. Her studies
   inspired work on an ethic of care, which particularly defines itself
   against Rawlsian-type justice- and contract-based approaches.

   Another group of influential psychological theories with ethical
   implications is the humanistic psychology movement. One of the most
   famous humanistic theories is Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
   Maslow argued that the highest human need is self-actualization, which
   can be described as fulfilling one's potential, and trying to fix what
   is wrong in the world. Carl Rogers's work was based on similar
   assumptions. He thought that in order to be a 'fully functioning
   person', one has to be creative and accept one's own feelings and
   needs. He also emphasized the value of self-actualization. A similar
   theory was proposed by Fritz Perls, who assumed that taking
   responsibility of one's own life is an important value.

   R.D. Laing developed a broad range of thought on interpersonal
   psychology. This deals with interactions between people, which he
   considered important, for an ethical action always occurs between one
   person and another. In books such as The Politics of Experience, he
   dealt with issues concerning how we should relate to persons labeled by
   the psychiatric establishment as "schizophrenic". He came to be seen as
   a champion for the rights of those considered mentally ill. He spoke
   out against (and wrote about) practices of psychiatrists which he
   considered inhumane or barbaric, such as electric shock treatment. Like
   Wittgenstein, he was frequently concerned with clarifying the use of
   language in the field -- so, for example, he suggested that the effects
   of psychiatric drugs (some of which are very deleterious, such as
   tardive diskensia) be called just that: "effects", and not be referred
   to by the preferred euphemisms of the drug companies, who prefer to
   call them "side effects". Laing also did work in establishing true
   asylums as places of refuge for those who feel disturbed and want a
   safe place to go through whatever it is they want to explore in
   themselves, and with others.

   A third group of psychological theories that have implications for the
   nature of ethics are based on evolutionary psychology. These theories
   are based on the assumption that the behaviour that ethics prescribe
   can sometimes be seen as an evolutionary adaptation. For instance,
   altruism towards members of one's own family promotes one's inclusive
   fitness.

Legal ethics

   Ethics has been applied to criminology leading to the field of criminal
   justice.

   Choices Vs. Consequences Consequences of personal choices may impact on
   other people and any associated reponsiblities may extend into a wider
   society. They are major factos in life, as they determine one's
   relationships with him/herself and with others.

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