We are all told, and we (probably) all believe, that there are some things we ought to do and others that we ought not. Ethics is an examination of these ‘oughts’ or norms of behaviour. What it seeks to provide are justifications...
Theories in this category address the question of what makes one action right and another one wrong irrespective of the consequences of the action. It emphasizes what is the right thing to do rather than what is the good thing to do...
Egoism is a position where the prime consideration is the effects of one’s actions on oneself. This sort of analysis can be seen to stem from the traditional philosophical dichotomy between one’s self (the subject) and the rest of the world (the object)...
Theories of this type are called consequentialist because they look at what happens (or will happen) following an action which has a moral dimension – what the outcome or consequences will be. Typically, one’s actions may then be good if the outcome is desirable...
This ethical system emphasizes a person’s character. The right thing to do in a given situation is what a virtuous person would do in the circumstances. Of course, we now need to say what a virtuous person is: someone who has, and exercises, character traits called virtues...
Although existentialism does not offer a full and systematic account of ethical value, there are several common threads that recur in the works of the main existentialist philosophers which suggest what that account might, in theory, look like...
In this section we will be probing a more rarified set of questions. In the previous sections (on normative ethics) we have been looking at questions of what persuades us to act in ways that are right or wrong, good or bad...
The facts about world poverty are easy to come by and continually shocking. Over a billion people live in extreme poverty (that is, on less than 70p per day). Extreme poverty implies hunger, malnutrition, disease and high infant mortality...
Several interesting philosophical questions arise in this area of human activity but they generally centre on how to deal with the life of a person. They include the questions of when human life begins and when it ends...
This is a relatively new area of ethical consideration. At its heart is the question of whether things other than other humans (and some sorts of animals) have a moral status that is independent of human beings...