Sample Material of Our IAS Mains GS Online Coaching Programme
Subject: General Studies (Paper 4 - Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude)
Topic: Determinants and consequences of Ethics
Determinants and consequences of Ethics
Although the words ethics and morality are often used interchangeably, morality is more precisely used to refer to the customs, principles of conduct and moral codes of an individual, group or society. Ethics, also termed moral philosophy or the science of morals, is the branch of philosophy that studies morality through the critical examination of right and wrong in human action.
The study of ethics falls into three main areas of focus:
• Meta-ethics,
• Normative ethics
• Applied ethics.
Meta-ethics is concerned with the very nature of right and wrong, where and how ethical judgments originate, and what they mean in relation to human nature and conduct. For example, questions posed in meta-ethics include how to define the nature of a good act and whether or not morality exists independently of human beings.
Normative ethics seeks to define specific standards or principles to guide ethical conduct in answer to questions such as what is valuable and how are actions morally assessed and justified. Various normative ethical theories attempt to systematically formulate guidelines to answer the basic question of how one ideally ought to behave in a particular situation. A central challenge of normative ethics is that various theories disagree on the fundamental basis and criteria for ethical analysis and conduct. Just as the conceptual assumptions of metaethics contribute to the formulation of normative ethics, normative ethics provide a basis for applied ethics when employed in the analysis of specific, practical issues. Finally, descriptive ethics simply describes the ethical beliefs, norms and behaviors of an individual or group as they actually exist, as opposed to how they ought to exist.
Deontological and Teleological Assumptions in Normative Ethics
When examining various normative theories, a distinction is often made between deontological and teleological perspectives. Deontology (from the Greek deon, meaning “duty”) refers to an ethical theory or perspective based on duty or obligation. A deontological, or duty-based, theory is one in which specific moral duties or obligations are seen as self-evident, having intrinsic value in and of themselves and needing no further justification. Moral actions are evaluated on the basis of inherent lightness or wrongness rather than goodness or a primary consideration of consequences. Holmes (1993) distinguishes between strong deontological theories, in which goodness is irrelevant to the lightness of an act, and weak deontological theories, in which goodness is relevant but not the primary determinant of moral rightness.
In contrast, teleology (from the Greek telos, meaning goal or end) describes an ethical perspective that contends the rightness or wrongness of actions is based solely on the goodness or badness of their consequences. In a strict teleological interpretation, actions are morally neutral when considered apart from their consequences. Ethical egoism and utilitarianism are examples of teleological theories.
