Nature and Scope of Ethics

By

Dr. Sarita Kar

Branches of Philosophy:

Metaphysics – what is the nature of ultimate reality?

Epistemology – can we know the real?

Ethics – what we ought/ should to do?

The term Ethics came from the Greek word “Ethos” means

custom or character

It has two dimensions- personal and social

• As a discipline investigates all aspects of human conduct

• It major concerned is the ethical standards by which human

actions can be judged

• It analyses the basic concepts of morality – duty,

responsibility, justice, virtue, conscience

• Different philosophers offered different status to ethics

Immanuel Kant: objectivity of ethical norms
Macintyre: Confined it to communities
Stevenson: treated them as a matter of personal beliefs
• Ethics is the science of rightness and wrongness of human “
Conduct”

• Conduct is a collective name for voluntary actions

• Conduct may include inward activities like motives and desire

as well as outward activities like speech and movements
Three major branches of Ethics

Normative Ethics: It deals with the criterion of moral conduct

There are three ethical theories are more prominent in normative
ethics -: Virtue theory : Aristotle, Aquinas
Duty theory: Kant, Rawls, John Locke
Consequential Theory: Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart
Mill

Virtue Ethics: deals with the human character

Deontologist and consequentialist ethicist: deals with human

action
Aristotle believes the actions of a virtuous person is always
morally right

Deontologist : Morality involved in the action itself

Kant believes an action is morally right if it follows the universal

laws

John Rawls believes an action is morally right if we all are agree

in a unbiased manner

John Locke define moral action is one which follows the natural
rights
• Consequentialism : morality based on the result or outcome of
that action

Utilitarianism: greatest happiness of the greatest people

State consequentialism: an action is right if it leads to the state-

welfare

Egoism: an action is right if it maximize good for self

Situation ethics: an action is good if it creates love

• Intellectualism: right action is that which promotes knowledge

• Welfarism: the best action is one which increase economic

wellbeing

Care ethics, Pragmatic ethics and Role ethics

Meta Ethics: study of the origin and meaning of ethical concepts

It investigates where our ethical principles came from and what

they mean to us
• Meta ethics has two prominent tasks

Metaphysical issues : possibility of morality with human beings

Psychological issues: deals with the cognitive procedure our

judgement and decision
 Is Ethics a Science?
A science aims at systematic knowledge

Ethics is a science because it aims at systematic explanation of

rightness or wrongness in the light of Highest Good of Man

Science aims at systematic causal explanation of facts, Ethics

aims at systematic evaluation of human conduct

It is a science in so far as it depends upon observation,

classification, and explanation of human conduct

 Is Ethics a Science?
Ethics is not a positive science which is systematic explanation of

the causes and effects

A Positive science, natural science or descriptive science deals

with “What Is”

But ethics is not with the nature , origin, and growth of human

conduct

It does not explain human actions by means of certain laws

 Is Ethics a Science?
Ethics is not concerned with the human conduct as it is but as it

ought to be

It is not concerned with judgement of fact, but with judgements

of value

The former are called factual judgements

The latter are called critical or appreciative judgements

Therefore, Ethics is not a positive science but a normative science

 Ethics is a Normative Science
Normative sciences seek to determine Norms, Ideals or Standards

There are three ideals of Human Life: Truth, Beauty and Good

These are the supreme values of human experience

Logic is concerned with the general conditions involved in

pursuit of Truth

Aesthetic is creation and appreciation of beauty

Ethics is concerned with what is Good in human action

Ethics is not a practical science

Practical science teaches us how to do

It is concerned with means for the realization of a definite end

It lies midway between science and art

like practical science, ethics does not teach us how to live a good

life
Ethics is not an Art

Art consists in the fulfilment of a skill in producing a thing

In any art of conduct, there is a definite product which it is the

object of the art to bring forth

In the case of morality, there is no product but only the activity

which is valued with reference to an ultimate end

 The Scope of Ethics
Ethics as a Normative science, seeks to define the moral ideal

When an action conforms to the moral ideal, it is said to be right,

when it does not conform to it, it is said to be wrong

There is a hierarchy of ends/ideal

Relative good and Absolute good

Ethics is concerned with the highest good or absolute good

Ethics is concerned with the nature, object, faculty, and standard

of moral judgement

Moral judgements are also accompanied by the sense of “Duty, or

Moral obligation”

Ethics investigate the questions like

What is the nature of moral obligation?

What is the origin of moral obligation?

To whom are we responsible for our conduct?

 Ethics assumes the freedom of the will

It discusses the nature of human freedom

It enquires in to the nature of responsibility

It examines the theories of punishment

So, the scope of ethics determines the nature and kinds of rights,

duties and virtues determined by the ultimate moral standard

Ethics has a province of its own, but it has close relation with

other field of study

Psychological: concerned of ethics are, the nature of voluntary

and non-voluntary actions, the relation between desire and

pleasure

Philosophical: essential nature of personality, the freedom of the

will, immortality of the soul, moral rules of the universe

Sociological: ethics is concerned with the relation of the

individual and society, vice versa

Political: the problem of ethics deals is the relation of individual

to the state, ethical basis and moral functions of the state, and

international morality
 The Method of Ethics
Ethics as a Normative science, seeks to investigate moral

phenomena with different method

Physical or biological

Historical or genetic

Psychological

Metaphysical

Both Empirical and Transcendental

 Why Ethics?
A Science is criticism of common sense

So, ethics as the science of morality, criticizes popular notions of

right and wrong. It exposes the defects and inconsistencies of the

social customs, and gives us a real insight into the nature of the

moral ideal

The result of this criticism is to dispel many erroneous notions

and to remove many inconsistencies in popular beliefs

 The End of Ethics
The aim of Ethics is to define the nature of the “Highest Good”

This is the theoretical aim of Ethics

As a theoretical science, it does not teach us how we can lead

moral life

But the study of moral concepts and theories indirectly influence

our practical life and regulates our conduct

So, theory expressed in practice

Thank You