Meta-ethics
Metaethics looks into the characteristics (features) and nature of ethics. Metaethics defines the best moral values by examining the meaning of abstract terms such as good, right, justice and fairness. Since answering this tutorial question is looking into the nature of three kinds of ethics, this in itself is an exercise of metaethics. A meta-ethical theory does not examine specific choices as being good, bad or evil but may give a profound meaning and implication to normative claims. Normative ethics will be discussed in the next section.
For example, if the question “Is sex before marriage good or bad?” is answered in meta-ethics by a group of people, they will try to define the good and the bad, but they will not point fingers and they can have a very abstract discussion about their own rationality of the situation and the descriptions of good and bad.
For example, if the question “Is sex before marriage good or bad?” is answered in meta-ethics by a group of people, they will try to define the good and the bad, but they will not point fingers and they can have a very abstract discussion about their own rationality of the situation and the descriptions of good and bad.
Normative Ethics
Normative ethics focuses on making rules, principles and theories for moral conduct. These rules act as the society’s ethical markers. While metaethics is about defining moral values, normative ethics is about norms and what is the better option or the better way to act morally.
For the above example used in meta-ethics, normative ethics might use the definition of good and bad according to the society’s norms or moral markers and define whether it is good or bad. For example, if principle of utility (which says that actions are right if they promote happiness) is used in this scenario, in more conservative countries like in Asia or Middle East sex outside or marriage is bad. But in western countries it is acceptable in some cases because of their norms.
For the above example used in meta-ethics, normative ethics might use the definition of good and bad according to the society’s norms or moral markers and define whether it is good or bad. For example, if principle of utility (which says that actions are right if they promote happiness) is used in this scenario, in more conservative countries like in Asia or Middle East sex outside or marriage is bad. But in western countries it is acceptable in some cases because of their norms.
Applied Ethics
Applied ethics is about applying the ethical reasoning methods (meta-ethics and normative ethics) to real life situations and solving the problem faced specifically. While there are no right or wrong answers as long as the reasoning is solid, applied ethics is the link between theory and practice.
For the previous example, if it is taken one step further and the couple lived in Malaysia and are Muslim Malaysians and are now taken in front of a jury to be punished for adultery, then the audience might contain some modern minded people who will apply their reasoning of good and bad and believe that they did not commit a crime. While traditional Muslims will choose to look into their norms and decide that they needed to be punished for their crime because it is against the norms and culture of the Malaysian Muslim society.
For the previous example, if it is taken one step further and the couple lived in Malaysia and are Muslim Malaysians and are now taken in front of a jury to be punished for adultery, then the audience might contain some modern minded people who will apply their reasoning of good and bad and believe that they did not commit a crime. While traditional Muslims will choose to look into their norms and decide that they needed to be punished for their crime because it is against the norms and culture of the Malaysian Muslim society.