WHAT IS THE FIELD OF STUDY OF ETHICS? - PHILOSOPHY - 2024

The field of study of ethics are the actions and values ​​of the individual in situations whose results can affect other individuals on many levels. Ethics is closely related to morality, although there are authors who seek to draw a better separation between these two.

The study of ethics seeks to answer, among other things, the question What is correct or incorrect in the face of particular circumstances? What is the ideal way of life, in all its aspects, for man?

Ethics should not be confused with behavior in accordance with social conventions, laws and beliefs imposed in the space in which the individual develops.

Ethics addresses the idiosyncratic and personality principles of an individual and then confronts them with the decisions that he makes, and the repercussions that may derive from there.

Ethics studies have been divided into three main branches, some with greater influence on the day-to-day life of the individual in society; others destined mainly for philosophical reflection.

These are metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics; in the same way, there is a fourth branch recognized by philosophers but with less assiduity in its study: descriptive ethics.

Branches of ethics and their fields of study

Metaethics

Metaethics is a branch that seeks to elucidate and interpret the nature, attributions and properties of ethics in actions, statements and judgments issued by man.

Metaethics does not focus on finding the answer or justifying the action of man in certain situations, but rather seeks to clarify higher and many more ambiguous concepts.

Concepts such as what is good; what is the meaning of the terms correct or incorrect; what is the nature of morality and the judgments from which they derive; how certain decisions can be defended over others.

Those are the kinds of questions that are asked in the field of metaethics. If viewed as a vertical order, metaethics would address issues that are on a higher plane, intangible in particular situations, but capable of conditioning them once you have a clear concept from which many others are derived.

Normative ethics

It is focused on action; in the how. It seeks to establish certain parameters, although not rigid, since there is no way that philosophical postulates have the ability to control human behavior.

Normative ethics seeks to provide the answers to the questions that arise when the doubt of how to act, morally speaking.

This branch is capable of determining certain standards of what is correct and what is not and that, contrary to meta-ethics, can have a much more practical value, which can be exemplified with real situations, which facilitates the individual's decision-making capacity. and action.

Normative ethics is responsible for determining, in a prescriptive way, the correctness or incorrectness of certain beliefs and behaviors in the social imaginary, as part of a search that focuses on the implementation of behaviors that can lead individual life and in society to an ideal state.

If in the world, a part of societies justifies murder under certain conditions (it should not be seen as a judicial crime, but as the power and decision of an individual to take the life of another), which are repudiated by other societies, normative ethics would be in charge of determining whether it is correct for man to maintain that belief and practice, or not.

Applied ethics

Applied ethics deals with the analysis of particular situations in a defined context, where practices and trades that handle their own codes come into play and that can subject the individual to internal conflicts between what their morals dictate and what may be correct within the field in which it is applied.

This branch largely encompasses professional practices, in which they have developed their own ethical guidelines on how to act in particular situations.

In areas of scientific innovation and research, for example, applied ethics is perceived in making justified decisions that could affect other living beings; If the intervention of this or that element, which would provide a great benefit for the human being, would not be counterproductive for the animals, to present a case.

In other professional areas, this branch is of great importance, as it is in the case of medicine. Medical professionals are trained under an ethical code added to their morality, but this does not exempt them from facing situations capable of unbalancing their personal position.

The way in which they decide to act may be strongly linked to the postulates of applied ethics.

Other professional areas that give great importance to the sense of ethics, due to its power over an element that affects the entire society, worldwide, is journalism, in terms of the treatment and management of information, capable of massively manipulating if it is used in an unscrupulous manner, violating the ethical code established for this practice.

Descriptive ethics

Descriptive ethics is considered the fourth of the study branches of ethics, although in some cases it may not be mentioned due to its study condition, which can be considered "impractical", since it focuses on shaping the perception that the individual against certain concepts, and does not seek to determine patterns of action or thought.

This branch is mainly focused on elucidating what the individual understands by morality and all the concepts around it.

In this way, it works as an empirical investigation of the individual or group attitudes of the human being. Compared to other branches, it is considered to have a broad observational and reflective character.

References

1. Foucault, M., & Faubion, JD (2000). Ethics Subjectivity and Truth; the Essential Works of Michael Foucault, 1954-1984.
2. Kamtekar, R. (2004). Situationism and Virtue Ethics on the Content of our Character. Ethics, 458-491.
3. Lévinas, E., & Nemo, P. (1985). Ethics and Infinity.
4. Miller, A. (2003). An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics. Polity.