Fundamental concepts and problems
Morality and Ethical Theory
morality -- concerned with social practices defining right and wrong
ethical theory and moral philosophy -- reflection on the nature and justification of right actions. These words refer to attempts to induce clarity, substance, and precision of argument into the domain of morality.
As something is legal, it is not necessarily moral; if something is illegal, it is not necessarily immoral. To discharge one's legal responsibilities is not necessarily to discharge one's moral responsibilities.
Approaches to the study of morality
three general approaches dominate literature
1 -- descriptive
2 -- conceptual
3 -- prescriptive (normative)
the descriptive approach is often referred to as a scientific study of ethics. Factual description and explanation of moral behavior and believes, as performed by anthropologists, socialologists, and historians, are typical in this approach.
The conceptual study of ethics centralize his own terms such as right, obligation, Justice, good, virtue, and responsibility. Crucial terms in business ethics such as liability in deception can be given the same kind of careful conceptual attention.
Prescriptive or normative ethics is a prescriptive study at attempting to formulate and defend basic moral norms. Normative moral philosophy aims at determining what ought to be done, which ceased be distinguished from what is, in fact, practice. Ideally, and ethical theory provides reasoning for adopting a whole system of moral principles or virtues.
Utilitarianism and Kantianism are widely discussed theories.
Utilitarians argue that there is but a single fundamental principle determining right action, which can be roughly stated as follows: "an action is morally right if and only it produces at least as great a balance of value over disvalue as any available alternative action."
Kantians, by contrast, have argued for principles that specify obligations rather than a balance of value.
Ethical Relativism
Ethical relativism asserts that whatever a culture thinks is right or wrong really is right or wrong for the members of that culture.
