HLTH3000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Normative Ethics, Descriptive Ethics, Practical Action
Document Summary
People can be ethically virtuous without the aid of philosophy. They act for genuine normative reasons, and work out what they do on the basis of considering such reason. Ethics is not - not "good in theory but not in practice", not based on religion, not relative to the society in which you live, not merely a matter of subjective taste or opinion. Ethical ideals and ethical reasoning: some notable characteristics. Not purely factual, though factual claims can be relevant to moral conclusions. Ethical arguments often do not yield one non- controversial conclusion, but may have more than one reasonable response. Not arbitrary or entirely subjective, since ethical claims require justification. Some ethical principles may be universal, but the conclusion they recommends in particular cases may depend on particular empirical conditions, cultural values, and historical context. Science of all types aims to be descriptive. It tries to say how the word is and tries to identify facts.
