Part I History of Ethics
Life of Socrates
Part II Concepts and Problems
Normative Ethics and Applied Ethics
Part III Applied Ethics
Field of Applied Ethics
Meta-ethics, Normative Ethics, and Applied Ethics
Metaethics talks about the nature of ethics and moral reasoning. Discussions about whether ethics is relative and whether we always act from self-interest are examples of meta-ethical discussions. In fact, drawing the conceptual distinction between Metaethics, Normative Ethics, and Applied Ethics is itself a "metaethical analysis."
Normative ethics is interested in determining the content of our moral behavior. Normative ethical theories seek to provide action-guides; procedures for answering the Practical Question ("What ought I to do?"). The moral theories of Kant and Bentham are examples of normative theories that seek to provide guidelines for determining a specific course of moral action. Think of the Categorical Imperative in the case of the former and the Principle of Utility in the case of the latter.
Applied Ethics attempts to deal with specific realms of human
action and to craft criteria for discussing issues that might arise within
those realms. The contemporary field of Applied Ethics arouse in the late
1960s and early 1970s. Today, it is a thriving part of the field of ethics.
Numerous books and web-sites are devoted to topics such as Business Ethics,
Computer Ethics, and Engineering Ethics. (See the Bioethics
This section will explore various concepts and problems concerned with meta- and normative ethical theories. The analysis of normative ethical theories will utilize Beauchamp and Childress's approach to this topic.