Normative Ethics

Abstract

Normative ethics is a branch of moral philosophy that addresses moral (ethical) questions about what to do and how to be. This branch divides into applied ethics and moral theory. Applied ethics addresses specific questions about the morality of such issues as abortion, capital punishment, the ethical treatment of animals, euthanasia, and sexual behavior. It also addresses ethical questions that arise within the professions. Moral theory by contrast addresses very general moral questions – questions about which types of action are morally right or wrong and what kind of person is morally good and why. These specific and general questions about what to do and how to be are first‐order moral questions and they are contrasted with questions about morality – second‐order questions about the meaning, truth, metaphysics, and epistemology of moral thought, language, and discourse. Such second‐order questions are the subject matter of metaethics, the other main branch of moral philosophy. This entry focuses on moral theory and covers these topics: its basic notions, its aims, how principles figure in such a theory, the various structures moral theories might take, standards used in evaluating such theories, and finally some of the challenges to moral theory