Normative ethics theories

Normative ethics is the study of ethical action. All theories (whether scientific or ethical) are built upon basic assumptions. There are disagreements about what precisely gives an action, rule, or disposition its ethical force. There are three competing views on how moral questions should be answered, along with hybrid positions that combine some elements of each: The second statement, from normative ethics, does attempt to derive a normative conclusion - namely, that the most moral choices are those which tend to enhance our well-being, or at the very least limit our pain and suffering.

In scientific theories these assumptions represen…

The term is commonly used in reference to the discussion of general theories about what one ought to do, a central part of Western ethics since ancient times. In order to show this, one would have to survey all normative-ethical theories, which is impossible here.

Normative ethics, that branch of moral philosophy, or ethics, concerned with criteria of what is right and wrong. It includes the formulation of moral rules that have implications for what human actions, institutions, and ways of life should be like. Ethics - Ethics - Normative ethics: Normative ethics seeks to set norms or standards for conduct. Pluralism in normative ethics is hardly defensible if the pluralist normative-ethical theories contain elements which contradict elements in other theories. It is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when considering how one ought to act, morally speaking. It is usually contrasted with theoretical ethics and applied ethics. What determines the moral standards that underlie particular theories are their basic assumptions about ethics and ethical behavior. This represents an attempt to create a moral standard, and as such, must be treated differently from the observation made previously. These basic assumptions, while themselves seldom proven, nevertheless provide the conceptual foundations that, through logical analysis, theories build their explanations upon. Normative ethics in a narrow sense, understood as moral philosophy, is part of a more ... several or even all of these theories.