why 'meta'

Question 1

four kinds of ethics

Answer 1

• normative (how)
• applied ethics (when)
• descriptive ethics (what)
• meta ethics (why)

Question 2

descriptive ethics

Answer 2

• describes how people behave
• useful way of looking how patterns of behaviour change over time & between cultures
• what is permitted by one society may forbidden by another
• simply presents the facts

Question 3

normative ethics

Answer 3

• investigates questions that arise when considering how we ought to behave
• various ethical theories help us decide whether we consider any particular action to be right e.g by looking at expected results or if action is commanded/forbidden by god
• questions on what we should do are first order questions

Question 4

applied ethics

Answer 4

• process of applying normative principles & arguments to particular situations
• one example is professional ethics like medical & legal professions draw up codes of conduct for those who practise
• useful way of checking whether ‘normative’ values & arguments supporting them produce sensible answers to moral questions
• example, euthanasia generally have ‘descriptive’ input of which nations have legalised it & how many people choose to be able to decide when they judge it to be right time to die

Question 5

meta ethics

Answer 5

• examines what moral language is about & how it can be justified
• ‘meta’ in greek means ‘beyond’ so meta-ethics goes beyond our normative theories
• asks questions like can we be certain about moral questions, what we mean by saying if something is good/bad, what is moral ‘value’ & its relation to fact

Question 6

first & second order questions

Answer 6

• first order questions are questions raised by normative ethics about how we should behave/what to do
• second order questions are meta ethical questions about nature and purpose of morality
• in ethics second order questions are questions about first order questions and answers given to those questions