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Information about Descriptive Ethics

Descriptive ethics, also known as comparative ethics, is the study of people's beliefs about morality. It contrasts with prescriptive or normative ethics, which is the study of ethical theories that prescribe how people ought to act, and with meta-ethics, which is the study of what ethical terms and theories actually refer to. The following examples of questions that might be considered in each field illustrate the differences between the fields:
Descriptive ethics: What do people think is right?
Normative (prescriptive) ethics: How should people act?
Applied ethics: How do we take moral knowledge and put it into practice?
Meta-ethics: What does 'right' even mean?

What is descriptive ethics?

Descriptive ethics is a form of empirical research into the attitudes of individuals or groups of people. Those working on descriptive ethics aim to uncover people's beliefs about such things as values, which actions are right and wrong, and which characteristics of moral agents are virtuous. Descriptive ethics may also concern people's ethical ideals or what actions societies condemn or punish in law or politics.

Because descriptive ethics involves empirical investigation, it is a field that is usually investigated by those working in the fields of evolutionary biology, psychology, sociology or anthropology. Information that comes from descriptive ethics is, however, also used in philosophical arguments.

Value theory can be either normative or descriptive but is usually descriptive.

Lawrence Kohlberg: An example of descriptive ethics

Lawrence Kohlberg is a good example of a psychologist working on descriptive ethics. In one study, for example, Kohlberg questioned a group of boys about what would be a right or wrong action for a man facing a moral dilemma: should he steal a drug to save his wife, or refrain from theft even though that would lead to his wife's death [1] Kohlberg's concern was not which choice the boys made, but the moral reasoning that lay behind their decisions. After carrying out a number of related studies, Kohlberg devised a theory about the development of human moral reasoning that was intended to reflect the moral reasoning actually carried out by the participants in his research. Kohlberg's research can be classed as descriptive ethics to the extent that he describes human beings' actual moral development. If, in contrast, he had aimed to describe how humans ought to develop morally, his theory would have involved prescriptive ethics.

Descriptive ethics and moral relativism

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Descriptive ethics is often used in arguments that are intended to support moral relativism (a meta-ethical theory about the nature of right and wrong). Such arguments can take several forms, but tend to resemble the following:
Premise 1: Europeans believe it is wrong to put old people out in the cold to die.
Premise 2: The Inuit believe that it is sometimes right to put old people out in the cold to die.
Premise 3: People in different cultures have different attitudes towards right and wrong.
Conclusion: What is right or wrong is determined by the culture you are living in.


This argument results from a confusion about the nature of descriptive and prescriptive ethics. The premises all refer to descriptive ethics; they refer to people's beliefs about what they ought to do. The conclusion refers to prescriptive or normative ethics; what people ought to do.

References

1. ^ Kohlberg, Lawrence, (1971). "Stages in Moral Development as a Basis for Moral Education." In C.M. Beck, B.S. Crittenden, and E.V. Sullivan, Eds. Moral Education: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Toronto: Toronto University Press.

See also

Morality (from the Latin moralitas "manner, character, proper behaviour") has three principal meanings. In its first descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong,
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Normative ethics is a branch of philosophical ethics concerned with classifying actions as right and wrong.

Normative ethics attempts to develop a set of rules governing human conduct, or a set of norms for action.
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In philosophy, meta-ethics (sometimes called "analytic ethics")[1] is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, and ethical statements, attitudes, and judgments.
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A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or consequences that are observable by the senses. Empirical data is data that is produced by experiment or observation.
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An ideal is a principle or value that one actively pursues as a goal. Ideals are particularly important in ethics, as the order in which one places them tends to determine the degree to which one reveals them as real and sincere.
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LAW may refer to:
  • Lightweight Anti-tank Weapon, like the M72 LAW (US Army) and the LAW 80 (British Army)
  • Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights (also known as LAW)
  • League of American Bicyclists, formerly known as the League of American Wheelmen

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Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. Although the term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, politics is observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious
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Evolutionary biology is a sub-field of biology concerned with the origin and descent of species, as well as their change, multiplication, and diversity over time.
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Psychology (from Greek: Literally "talk about the soul" (from logos)) is both an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior.
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Sociology (from Latin: socitus, "companion"; and the suffix -ology, "the study of", from Greek λόγος, lógos, "knowledge") is the systematic and scientific study of society and societal behavior.
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Anthropology (from Greek: ἄνθρωπος, anthropos, "human being"; and λόγος, logos, "speech" lit. to talk about human beings) is the study of humanity.
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Lawrence Kohlberg (October 25, 1927 – January 19, 1987) was an American psychologist born in Bronxville, New York, who served as a professor at the University of Chicago as well as Harvard University.
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moral relativism is the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect objective and/or universal moral truths, but instead make claims relative to social, cultural, historical or personal circumstances.
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In philosophy, meta-ethics (sometimes called "analytic ethics")[1] is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, and ethical statements, attitudes, and judgments.
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European peoples are the various nations and ethnic groups of Europe.

European Ethnology is the field of cultural anthropology focusing on Europe.

Ethnic groups of Europe

see

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This list of ethics topics puts articles relevant to well-known ethical (right and wrong, good and bad) debates and decisions in one place - including practical problems long known in philosophy, and the more abstract subjects in law, politics, and some professions and sciences.
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In philosophy, meta-ethics (sometimes called "analytic ethics")[1] is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, and ethical statements, attitudes, and judgments.
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Moral reasoning is a study in psychology that overlaps with moral philosophy. It is also called Moral development. Prominent contributors to theory include Lawrence Kohlberg and Elliot Turiel.
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The word scruples or scruple can mean:
  • An uneasy feeling arising from conscience or principle that tends to hinder action. (Synonym: "qualm".)
  • A unit of apothecary weight. It is equivalent to a twenty-fourth part of an ounce, 1.3 grams, or 20 grains.

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Lawrence Kohlberg (October 25, 1927 – January 19, 1987) was an American psychologist born in Bronxville, New York, who served as a professor at the University of Chicago as well as Harvard University.
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