Ethics (also known as moral philosophy) is a branch of philosophy Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. The word "Philosophy" comes from the which seeks to address questions about morality In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct or a set of beliefs distinguishing between right and wrong behaviors. Descriptive morality does not explain why any behavior should be considered right or wrong, only that it may be classified so. For the most part right and wrong acts are classified as such because they cause; that is, about concepts such as good and bad, right Rights are variously construed as legal, social, or moral freedoms to act or refrain from acting, or entitlements to be acted upon or not acted upon. While the concept is fundamental to civilized societies, there is considerable disagreement about what is meant precisely by the term rights. It has been used by different groups and thinkers for and wrong A wrong or being wrong is a concept in law, ethics, and science. In a colloquial sense, wrongness usually refers to a state of incorrectness, inaccuracy, error or miscalculation in any number of contexts. More specifically, being "wrong" refers to a situation wherein an individual has made an error or misjudgment, justice Justice is the concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, fairness, or equity, and virtue Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a character trait or quality valued as being always good in and of itself.
Major branches of ethics include:
- meta-ethics In philosophy, meta-ethics is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, and ethical statements, attitudes, and judgments. Meta-ethics is one of the three branches of ethics generally recognized by philosophers, the others being ethical theory and applied ethics. Ethical theory and applied ethics make up, about the theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions and how their truth-values In logic and mathematics, a logical value, also called a truth value, is a value indicating the relation of a proposition to truth (if any) may be determined;
- normative ethics Normative ethics is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when we think about the question “how ought one act, morally speaking?” Normative ethics is distinct from meta-ethics because it examines standards for the rightness and wrongness of actions, while meta-ethics studies the meaning of moral, about the practical means of determining a moral course of action;
- applied ethics Applied ethics is, in the words of Brenda Almond, co-founder of the Society for Applied Philosophy, "the philosophical examination, from a moral standpoint, of particular issues in private and public life that are matters of moral judgment". It is thus a term used to describe attempts to use philosophical methods to identify the morally, about how moral outcomes can be achieved in specific situations;
- moral psychology Moral psychology is a field of study in both philosophy and psychology. Some use the term "moral psychology" relatively narrowly to refer to the study of moral development. However, others tend to use the term more broadly to include any topics at the intersection of ethics and psychology . Such topics are ones that involve the mind and, about how moral capacity or moral agency develops and what its nature is; and
- 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, about what moral values people actually abide by.
Within each of these branches are many different schools of thought and still further sub-fields of study.
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