Normative Ethics/Introduction
Most philosophy is based around explaining how things are. Metaphysics is the study of how reality is. Epistemology is the study of what knowledge is. Even meta-ethics is the study of what morality is. But normative ethics is the study of how people ought to behave. It's called that because the questions we answer in normative ethics are normative questions, which pertain to norms and evaluations, as opposed to descriptive questions, which only describe what the world is like.
In this book, we will consider several theories that people have thought up as to how to answer important normative questions. These questions include:
- Is it ever justified to lie?
- Can you sacrifice one person for the greater good?
- Is it ever permissible to violate someone's rights?
- Do "rights" even exist?
- Can you ever be obligated to hurt somebody?
We will also look at the origins of normative ethics, since it has always existed, even if not as an academic field of philosophy. Toward the end, we will try to apply what we have learned about normative ethics to some real-world situations, and we'll leave you with some thought experiments to ponder. I hope you enjoy!