Moral philosophy

Moral Philosophy

Moral Philosophy (pronunciation: /ˈmɔːrəl fɪˈlɒsəfi/), also known as Ethics, is a branch of Philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior.

Etymology

The term "Moral Philosophy" is derived from the Latin word "moralis" which means "proper behavior of a person in society" and the Greek word "philosophia" which means "love of wisdom".

Related Terms

Ethics: The branch of philosophy that deals with morality. Ethics is concerned with distinguishing between good and evil in the world, between right and wrong human actions, and between virtuous and nonvirtuous characteristics of people.

Meta-ethics: The branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, statements, attitudes, and judgments.

Normative ethics: The study of ethical action. It is the branch of ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when considering how one ought to act, morally speaking.

Applied ethics: The branch of ethics concerned with the analysis of particular moral issues in private and public life.

Descriptive ethics: The study of people's beliefs about morality.

Virtue ethics: A broad term for theories that emphasize the role of character and virtue in moral philosophy rather than either doing one’s duty or acting in order to bring about good consequences.

Deontology: The normative ethical theory that the morality of an action should be based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series of rules, rather than based on the consequences of the action.

Consequentialism: The class of normative ethical theories holding that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.

Moral relativism: The view that moral judgments are true or false only relative to some particular standpoint (for instance, that of a culture or a historical period) and that no standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others.

Moral absolutism: The ethical belief that there are absolute standards against which moral questions can be judged, and that certain actions are right or wrong, regardless of the context of the act.