Key Requirements and Approaches in Normative Ethics
Requirements of normative moral theories
A normative moral theory tries to answer a deceptively simple question: How should we act? To do that well, the theory needs to meet several requirements. Think of these as the standards any good moral theory has to pass before we take it seriously.
- Consistency means the theory can't give you contradictory answers in similar cases. If lying is wrong in one situation, the theory needs a principled reason for treating a nearly identical situation differently.
- Determinacy means the theory actually tells you what to do. A theory that says "do the right thing" without helping you figure out what the right thing is fails this test.
- Applicability means the theory works in real-world situations, not just in thought experiments. If a moral framework can't handle everyday decisions, it's not much use.
- Justifiability means the theory rests on sound reasoning. Its principles need to be defensible, not arbitrary. You should be able to explain why the theory's rules hold.
- Impartiality means the theory doesn't play favorites. It treats everyone's interests as equally worthy of moral consideration, without bias toward any particular group.
No single theory nails all five perfectly, which is part of why normative ethics involves ongoing debate. But these requirements give you a checklist for evaluating any moral framework you encounter.
Areas of ethics comparison
Ethics as a discipline breaks into three levels, and it's easy to mix them up on an exam.
Metaethics asks foundational questions about morality itself. Are moral claims objective facts, or just expressions of personal preference? What do we even mean when we call something "good"? Metaethics doesn't tell you what to do; it investigates the nature of moral language and moral truth.
Normative ethics is where the action is for this unit. This is the level that develops and evaluates theories prescribing how you ought to act. It establishes principles, rules, or criteria for moral behavior.
Applied ethics takes those normative theories and puts them to work on specific real-world problems:
- Bioethics tackles issues like euthanasia and genetic engineering
- Environmental ethics addresses climate change and animal rights
- Business ethics deals with corporate responsibility and whistleblowing
The three levels build on each other. Metaethics provides the groundwork, normative ethics builds the theories, and applied ethics tests them against actual moral dilemmas.
Approaches to normative ethics
There are three major families of normative theory, and they disagree about what makes an action morally right.
Consequentialist approaches judge actions entirely by their outcomes. An action is right if it produces the best overall consequences.
- Utilitarianism is the most well-known version. It says the right action is the one that maximizes overall happiness or well-being for the greatest number of people.
- Ethical egoism is a less popular variant that says the right action is the one that maximizes your own self-interest.
Deontological approaches focus on the action itself, not the outcome. Certain actions are right or wrong regardless of what consequences they produce.
- Kantian ethics holds that you should act only according to maxims you could consistently will to be universal laws. It also demands that you treat people as ends in themselves, never merely as tools for your own purposes.
- Divine Command Theory grounds moral obligation in God's commands. An action is right because God commands it.
Virtue-based approaches shift the focus away from individual actions and toward the character of the person acting. The central question isn't "What should I do?" but "What kind of person should I be?"
- Aristotelian ethics emphasizes cultivating virtues like courage, temperance, and justice as the path to eudaimonia, which translates roughly as human flourishing or living well.
- Confucian ethics similarly stresses developing virtues such as benevolence, righteousness, and filial piety, with the goal of maintaining social harmony.
Perspectives on moral truth and pluralism
These positions address a deeper question: Do moral truths even exist, and if so, what kind of truths are they?
- Moral absolutism holds that some moral truths are universal. They apply to everyone, everywhere, regardless of context.
- Moral relativism argues the opposite: moral truths depend on cultural or individual perspectives. What's right in one society may not be right in another.
- Moral realism claims that moral facts exist independently of what anyone believes. Saying "torture is wrong" is stating a fact about the world, not just expressing a preference.
- Moral pluralism recognizes that there are multiple legitimate moral values or principles, and they can genuinely conflict. In practice, this often means weighing prima facie duties (duties that hold unless overridden by a stronger duty) against each other in specific situations.
Moral intuition also plays a role in ethical reasoning. Your gut sense that something is wrong can serve as a starting point for moral reflection, though most philosophers agree intuitions need to be tested against reasoned principles rather than accepted uncritically.