Explain the difference between Meta ethics and Normative ethics.

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Explain the difference between Meta ethics and Normative ethics

Laura Barrett

Ethics is concerned with ideas about moral judgements and the basis for rules of conduct, which apply to all humans, and therefore is a form of ethical absolutism.

 What is right i.e. about justice, how people should live. In addition it explores the choices people make and about the values and reasoning that lay behind them and about the meaning and use of moral terms.

The study of Ethics is split into two branches. There is normative ethics.  Normative ethics is based on natural law theory which states that what is good can be determined from an analysis of human nature. This considers what kinds of things are good and bad and how we are to decide what kinds of action are right and wrong. This is the main tradition of ethical thinking, as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle used it.    

 Many moral arguments is concerned with the rights or wrongs of specific matters.    

“It is always wrong to steal.”  

The sentence above is a normative statement as using another normative statement such as

“No I think it is right to steal on some occasions,” can challenge it. However you can’t challenge a normative statement by using a descriptive one

“But everyone around here steals if they get a chance.”

It is not saying that it is wrong to steal it is implying that everyone may do something, but it doesn’t make it right. It is about values.  

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It deals with Norms, which may include rules and moral prescriptions like the Golden rule. But they can also include non-moral things, such as rules about the order of operations when working out mathematical problems.

 Normative ethics can be spilt into categories.

Teleological theory. This means that moral judgements are based entirely on the effects produced by an action. This view considers appeals to common sense.

 An action is considered right or wrong in relation of its consequences. When considering a course of an action phrases like “Will this hurt me?” or “Will this hurt others?”  

Whether we ...

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