Theoretical approaches to ethics. Normative ethical theory

Normative ethics is the descriptor that is applied to the entire caliber of a certain perspective of ethics that has various sub-categories to it. As general definition, normative ethics is the term given to the moral investigation that queries how one should act in an ethical manner. To this end, a quantity of ethical systems exists that seek to answer that question. To differentiate normative ethics from other philosophical ethical theories, meta-ethics, for instance, attempts to objectively examine standards for right and wrong in a comparative, phenomenological manner, whilst descriptive ethics -- another brand of ethics is an empirical investigation of people's moral beliefs.

Normative ethics may also be called 'prescriptive' since it recommends a certain moral route of conduct for an individual. So, for instance, descriptive ethics would be concerned with investigating and describing the proportion of people that hold ethnic discrimination to be unjust, whilst normative ethics would advocate whether or not it would be right to hold such a view and, if so, to which extent, as well as possible involved minutiae.

Normative ethics can be divided into both moral theory and applied ethics, but with increasing occurrence, boundaries between the two are becoming blurred (Baggini, 26) as the two originally separate fields are dissolving into each other.

Normative ethical theories themselves can be divided into two kinds. There were the traditional systems that existence in a world that was more religious and convinced that standards of right or wrong could be delineated, was concerned with discovering and prescribing clear-cut systems of conduct. Examples here include:

Biblical imperatives

Utilitariasm -- where actions were judged in pragmatic way according to the amount of pleasure it accorded the greatest quantity of people. There are various approaches...

By Rawls, Locke, and Rousseau) that specify desirable forms of conduct (or contract) between citizens and government that would be most helpful for structuring a strong, civilized, and content nation (philosophy.lander.edu.)
The 20th century, adhering to its relative spirit, no longer formulated theories that advocated rightness or wrongness but rather discussed the relativity and diversity of moral values (Baggini, 43). Ross, for instance, in his book "The Right and the Good" argues that moral theories cannot conceptualize the rightness or wrongness of a certain action. The best they can do is compare them to a certain kind of moral duty such as justice of benevolence and describes the rightness or wrongness of the action in comparison to that external measure.

Rawls, another modern public figure in normative ethics published his classic "A theory of Justice' that discuses the principles and conceptualizations of perfect equality and effective conception of justice.

These modern facets of normative ethics are distinguished from those of the past by their placing the focus on defining and conceptualizing one or more concepts of a 'well-ordered' life -- such as benevolence, justice, truth -- instead of categorically presenting prescriptions. It is considered that each individual has his or her idea of an ethical existence and that these ideas generally stem from culture, ethnicity, experience, and so forth.

Descriptive ethics.

The best way to understand descriptive ethics is to compare it against other systems of ethics.

Normative or prescriptive ethics questions how people should act. Applied ethics questions how moral knowledge should be practically implemented.…