• Descriptive ethics, also known as comparative ethics, is the study of people’s beliefs about morality. It contrasts with prescriptive or normative ethics, which is the study of ethical theories that prescribe how people ought to act, and with meta-ethics, which is the study of what ethical terms and theories actually refer to. For Ex:

1. Descriptive ethics: What do people think is right?
2. Meta-ethics: What does “right” even mean?
3. Normative (prescriptive) ethics: How should people act?
4. Applied ethics: How do we take moral knowledge and put it into practice?

• Descriptive ethics is a form of empirical research into the attitudes of individuals or groups of people. Those working on descriptive ethics aim to uncover people’s beliefs about such things as values, which actions are right and wrong, and which characteristics of moral agents are virtuous.
• Research into descriptive ethics may also investigate people’s ethical ideals or what actions societies reward or punish in law or politics. What ought to be noted is that culture is generational and not static. Therefore a new generation will come with its own set of morals and that qualifies to be their ethics. Descriptive ethics will hence try to oversee whether ethics still holds its place.
• Descriptive ethics is on the less philosophical end of the spectrum, since it seeks to gather particular information about how people live and draw general conclusions based on observed patterns.

(3) Normative ethics:

• Normative ethics is the study of ethical action. It is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when considering how one ought to act. Normative ethics is distinct from meta-ethics because it examines standards for the rightness and wrongness of actions, while meta-ethics studies the meaning of moral language and the metaphysics of moral facts.
• Normative ethics is also distinct from descriptive ethics, as the latter is an empirical investigation of people’s moral beliefs. To put it another way, descriptive ethics would be concerned with determining what proportion of people believe that killing is always wrong, while normative ethics is concerned with whether it is correct to hold such a belief. Hence, normative ethics is sometimes called prescriptive, rather than descriptive.

Normative ethical theories:

• There are disagreements about what precisely gives an action, rule, or disposition its ethical force.
• Broadly speaking, there are three competing views on how moral questions should be answered:

1. Virtue ethics 
2. Deontological ethics
3. Consequentialism 

• Virtue ethics focuses on the character of those who are acting, while both deontological ethics and consequentialism focus on the status of the action, rule, or disposition itself. The latter two conceptions of ethics themselves come in various forms.
• For example, a consequentialist may argue that lying is wrong because of the negative consequences produced by lying—though a consequentialist may allow that certain foreseeable consequences might make lying acceptable. A deontologist might argue that lying is always wrong, regardless of any potential “good” that might come from lying. A virtue ethicist, however, would focus less on lying in any particular instance and instead consider what a decision to tell a lie or not tell a lie said about one’s character and moral behavior. As such, the morality of lying would be determined on a case-by-case basis, which would be based on factors such as personal benefit, group benefit, and intentions (as to whether they are benevolent or malevolent).

1. Virtue ethics:

• Virtue ethics, advocated by Plato, Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, focuses on the inherent character of a person rather than on specific actions. Virtue ethics emphasizes the role of one’s character and the virtues that one’s character embodies for determining or evaluating ethical behavior.
• The cardinal virtues are a set of four virtues derived initially from Plato‘s scheme, discussed in Republic. They consist of:

1. Prudence: also described as wisdom, the ability to judge between actions with regard to appropriate actions at a given time.
2. Justice : also considered as fairness, the most extensive and most important virtue.
3. Temperance: also known as restraint, the practice of self-control, abstention, and moderation tempering the appetition.
4. Courage: also named fortitude, forbearance, strength, endurance, and the ability to confront fear, uncertainty, and intimidation.

• Aristotle categorized the virtues as moral and intellectual. He identified a few intellectual virtues, the most important of which was wisdom. The approximately two dozen moral virtues he identified includes above four i.e. Prudence, Justice, Fortitude (Courage), Temperance 
• Aristotle argued that each of the moral virtues was a mean (called golden mean) between two corresponding vices, one of excess and one of deficiency. For example: courage is a virtue found between the vices of cowardliness and recklessness.
• In Chinese philosophy, a similar concept, Doctrine of the Mean, was propounded by Confucius. Buddhist philosophy likewise includes the concept of the Middle Path.

Criticism of Virtue theory:

• Regarding virtues once supposedly applicable to women, many would have once considered a virtuous woman to be quiet, servile, and industrious. This conception of female virtue no longer holds true in many modern societies. Proponents of virtue theory sometimes respond to this objection by arguing that a central feature of a virtue is its universal applicability. In other words, any character trait defined as a virtue must reasonably be universally regarded as a virtue for all sentient beings. According to this view, it is inconsistent to claim for example servility as a female virtue, while at the same time not proposing it as a male one.
• Another objection to virtue theory is that the school does not focus on what sorts of actions are morally permitted and which ones are not, but rather on what sort of qualities someone ought to foster in order to become a good person. In other words, while some virtue theorists may not condemn, for example, murder as an inherently immoral or impermissible sort of action, they may argue that someone who commits a murder is severely lacking in several important virtues, such as compassion and fairness.

2. Deontological ethics

• Deontological ethics is the normative ethical position that judges the morality of an action based on the action’s adherence to rules. It is sometimes described as “duty” or “obligation” or “rule” based ethics, because rules “bind you to your duty.”
• Deontology argues that decisions should be made considering the factors of one’s duties and others’ rights.
• Some deontological theories include:

(a) Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative or Kantianism:

• Central to Kant’s construction of the moral law is the categorical imperative, which acts on all people, regardless of their interests or desires. Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative, which roots morality in humanity’s rational capacity and asserts certain inviolable moral laws.
• According to Kant, human beings occupy a special place in creation, and morality can be summed up in an imperative, or ultimate commandment of reason, from which all duties and obligations derive. He defined an imperative as any proposition declaring a certain action (or inaction) to be necessary.
• Kant formulated the categorical imperative in various ways:
• His principle of universality requires that, for an action to be permissible, it must be possible to apply it to all people.
• His formulation of humanity as an ends in itself requires that It is immoral to use another person merely as a means to an end, and that people must, under all circumstances, be treated as ends in themselves. In other words,  it was not the consequences of actions that make them right or wrong but the motives of the person who carries out the action. Kant argues that to act in the morally right way, people must act from duty (deon). [Means to an end refers to any action (the means) carried out for the sole purpose of achieving something else (an end)].
• Kant argues that those things that are usually thought to be good, such as intelligence, perseverance and pleasure, fail to be either intrinsically good or good without qualification. Pleasure, for example, appears not to be good without qualification, because when people take pleasure in watching someone suffering, this seems to make the situation ethically worse.

(b) Moral absolutism:

• Some deontologists are moral absolutists, believing that certain actions are absolutely right or wrong, regardless of the intentions behind them as well as the consequences. Immanuel Kant, for example, argued that the only absolutely good thing is a good will, and so the single determining factor of whether an action is morally right is the will, or motive of the person doing it. If they are acting on a bad maxim, e.g. “I will lie”, then their action is wrong, even if some good consequences come of it.
• Non-absolutist deontologists hold that the consequences of an action such as lying may sometimes make lying the right thing to do.

(c) Divine command theory:

• Although not all deontologists are religious, some believe in the ‘divine command theory’. The divine command theory states that an action is right if God has decreed that it is right.
• The Divine Command Theory is a form of deontology because, according to it, the rightness of any action depends upon that action being performed because it is a duty, not because of any good consequences arising from that action.
• If God commands people not to work on Sunday, then people act rightly if they do not work on Sunday because God has commanded that they do not do so. If they do not work on Sunday because they are lazy, then their action is not truly speaking “right”, even though the actual physical action performed is the same.

3. Consequentialism  (Teleology)

• Consequentialism is 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. Thus, from a consequentialist standpoint, a morally right act (or omission from acting) is one that will produce a good outcome, or consequence. In other words, “the ends justify the means”.
• Consequentialism is usually distinguished from deontological ethics (or deontology), in that deontology derives the rightness or wrongness of one’s conduct from the character of the behaviour itself rather than the outcomes of the conduct. It is also distinguished from virtue ethics, which focuses on the character of the agent rather than on the nature or consequences of the act (or omission) itself.
• Some Consequentialism theories include:

(a) State consequentialism or Mohist consequentialism

• It holds that an action is right if it leads to state welfare, through order, material wealth, and population growth.

(b) Ethical egoism

•  Ethical egoism is  consequentialist ethics in which moral agents ought to do what is in their own self-interest. In ethical egoism, the consequences for the individual agent are taken to matter more than any other result. Thus, egoism will prescribe actions that may be beneficial, detrimental, or neutral to the welfare of others.

(c) Ethical altruism

• Ethical altruism can be seen as a consequentialist ethics which prescribes that an individual take actions that have the best consequences for everyone except for himself.

(d) Utilitarianism

• Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics holding that the moral action is the one that maximizes utility. Utility is defined in various ways, including as pleasure, economic well-being and the lack of suffering. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, which implies that the consequences of an action are of moral importance.
• Classical utilitarianism’s two most influential contributors are Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.
• Bentham, who takes happiness as the measure for utility, says, “it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong”. Bentham introduces a method of calculating the value of pleasures and pains, which has come to be known as the hedonic calculus. [Hedonism is a school of thought that argues that pleasure is the primary or most important intrinsic good. A hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure (pleasure minus pain)]. Bentham says that the value of a pleasure or pain, considered by itself, can be measured according to its intensity, duration, certainty/uncertainty and propinquity/remoteness. In addition, it is necessary to consider “the tendency of any act by which it is produced” . Finally, it is necessary to consider the extent, or the number of people affected by the action.
• Mill was brought up as a Benthamite with the explicit intention that would carry on the cause of utilitarianism. In Mill’s book Utilitarianism, he rejected a purely quantitative measurement of utility (unlike Bentham).

Q. What is the difference between the Theories of Mill and Bentham?

• On the one hand J.S. Mill popularised the Utilitarianism of his father James Mill and his friend Bentham and on the other hand, he continued his enquiry into truth. Mill’s theory differs from Bentham’s even though Mill has founded the school of Utilitarianism on Bentham’s principles. The theories of Mill and Bentham differ from each other in the following respects.
• Qualitative distinction in pleasures: Mill made qualitative distinctions in different pleasures. According to Bentham, all pleasures are similar if the quantity of pleasure be the same. Contrary to this, according to Mill, ‘It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied, better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.’ In this way Mill clearly states that sensous pleasure originating from animal tendencies is not everything. Mental or intellectual pleasure is far superior.
• Differences in the assumptions about human nature: Actually Mill and Bentham differed in their assumptions relating to human nature. Bentham did not look upon man as anything better than animal. According to him, man is always in search of pleasure. Pleasures do not have qualitative distinctions. According to Mill, man is not, merely an animal. He is superior to animals. He has intellect and intellectual pleasure is superior to sensual pleasure. Man’s importance is due to his intellect. He does not run blind folded after pleasures. He makes qualitative distinctions in pleasures.
• Difference in ethical principles: The ethical principles of Mill and Bentham also differ. According to Bentham man should carry out activities yielding the maximum pleasure, without making qualitative distinctions. According to Mill, Man is not to become an animal. His humanity is valuable. It is creditable to be human being even by designing sensual pleasure. Man’s duty is to attain high qualities and nobler or great pleasures.

Ethics of care:

• The ethics of care is a normative ethical theory: a theory about what makes actions morally right or wrong. It is one of a cluster of normative ethical theories that were developed by feminists in the second half of the twentieth century.
• While consequentialist and deontological ethical theories emphasize universal standards and impartiality, ethics of care emphasize the importance of response. The shift in moral perspective is manifest by a change in the moral question from “what is just?” to “how to respond?” Ethics of care criticize application of universal standards as “morally problematic, since it breeds moral blindness or indifference.”
• This sort of outlook is what feminist critics call a ‘justice view’ of morality. A morality of care rests on the understanding of relationships as a response to another in their terms.
• Ethics of care is also a basis for care-focused feminist theorizing on maternal ethics. Critical of how society engenders caring labor, many feminist theorists suggest caring should be performed and care givers valued in both public and private spheres.
• Joan Tronto states there are four ethical elements of care:
  1. Attentiveness
     Attentiveness is crucial to the ethics of care because care requires a recognition of others’ needs in order to respond to them.
  2. Responsibility
     In order to care, we must take it upon ourselves, thus responsibility. The problem associated with this ethical element of responsibility is the question of obligation. Obligation is often tied to pre-established societal and cultural norms and roles. Tronto makes the effort to differentiate the terms “responsibility” and “obligation” with regards to the ethic of care. Responsibility is ambiguous, whereas obligation refers to situations where action or reaction is due, such as the case of a legal contract.
  3. Competence
     To provide care also means competency. One cannot simply acknowledge the need to care, accept the responsibility, but do not follow through with enough adequacy.
  4. Responsiveness
     This refers to the “responsiveness of the care receiver to the care”. Responsiveness signals an important moral problem within care: by its nature, care is concerned with conditions of vulnerability and inequality. Responsiveness does not equal reciprocity. Rather, it is another method to understand vulnerability and inequality by understanding what has been expressed by those in the vulnerable position, as opposed to re-imagining oneself in a similar situation.

(4) Applied ethics:

• Applied ethics is a discipline of philosophy that attempts to apply ethical theory to real-life situations. The discipline has many specialized fields, such as engineering ethics, bioethics, geoethics, public service ethics and business ethics.
• Applied ethics is used in some aspects of determining public policy, as well as by individuals facing difficult decisions. The sort of questions addressed by applied ethics include: “Is getting an abortion immoral?” “Is euthanasia immoral?” “Is affirmative action right or wrong?” “What are human rights, and how do we determine them?” “Do animals have rights as well?” and “Do individuals have the right of self determination?”

Particular fields of application:

1. Bioethics

• Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy.
• It also includes Primary care ethics which is the study of the everyday decisions that primary care clinicians make, such as: how long to spend with a particular patient, how to reconcile their own values and those of their patients, when and where to refer or investigate, how to respect confidentiality when dealing with patients, relatives and third parties.
• Bioethics also needs to address emerging biotechnologies that affect basic biology and future humans. These developments include cloning, gene therapy, human genetic engineering, astroethics and life in space, and manipulation of basic biology through altered DNA etc.
• Many religious communities have their own histories of inquiry into bioethical issues and have developed rules and guidelines on how to deal with these issues from within the viewpoint of their respective faiths.

2. Business ethics

• Business ethics (also corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.
• Business ethics also has both normative and descriptive dimensions. As a corporate practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. Academics attempting to understand business behavior employ descriptive methods.
• The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the interaction of profit-maximizing behavior with non-economic concerns.
• Interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major corporations and within academia. For example, today most major corporations promote their commitment to non-economic values under headings such as ethics codes and social responsibility charters. Governments use laws and regulations to point business behavior in what they perceive to be beneficial directions. Ethics implicitly regulates areas and details of behavior that lie beyond governmental control. The emergence of large corporations with limited relationships and sensitivity to the communities in which they operate accelerated the development of formal ethics regimes.

3. Organizational ethics

• Organizational ethics is the ethics of an organization, and it is how an organization responds to an internal or external stimulus. Organizational ethics is interdependent with the organizational culture. Although, it is akin to both organizational behavior (OB) and business ethics, organizational ethics is neither OB nor solely business ethics (which includes corporate governance and corporate ethics). Organizational ethics express the values of an organization to its employees and/or other entities irrespective of governmental and/or regulatory laws.
• An organization forms when individuals with varied interests and different backgrounds unite on a common platform and work together towards predefined goals and objectives. A code of ethics within an organization is a set of principles that is used to guide the organization in its decisions, programs, and policies.
• There are at least four elements that aim to create an ethical culture and behaviour of employees within an organization. These elements are:
  1) a written code of ethics and standards (ethical code)
  2) ethics training for executives, managers, and employees
  3) the availability of ethical situational advice (i.e. advice lines or offices)
  4) confidential reporting systems

4. Machine ethics

• Machine Ethics is the part of the ethics of artificial intelligence concerned with the moral behaviour of artificially intelligent beings. Machine Ethics contrasts with roboethics, which is concerned with the moral behaviour of humans as they design, construct, use and treat such beings. Machine ethics should not be confused with computer ethics, which focuses on professional behaviour towards computers and information.
• The effort to actually program a machine or artificial agent to behave as though instilled with a sense of ethics requires new specificity in our normative theories.

5. Military ethics

• Military ethics are concerned with questions regarding the application of force and the ethos of the soldier and are often understood as applied professional ethics.
• Military ethics involves multiple areas, including the following among others:

1. what should be the laws of war
2. justification for the initiation of military force
3. decisions about who may be targeted in warfare
4. decisions on choice of weaponry, and what collateral effects such weaponry may have
5. standards for handling military prisoners
6. methods of dealing with violations of the laws of war

6. Political ethics

• Political ethics (also known as political morality or public ethics) is the practice of making moral judgements about political action and political agents.
• It covers two areas. The first is the ethics of process (or the ethics of office), which deals with public officials and the methods they use. The second area, the ethics of policy (or ethics and public policy) concerns judgements about policies and laws.
• Criticism: Some critics (so called political realists) argue that ethics has no place in politics. If politicians are to be effective in the real world, they cannot be bound by moral rules. They have to pursue the national interest.
• Another kind of criticism comes from those who argue that we should not pay so much attention to politicians and policies but should instead look more closely at the larger structures of society where the most serious ethical problems lie. Advocates of political ethics respond that while structural injustice should not be ignored, too much emphasis on structures neglects the human agents who are responsible for changing them.

(a) Ethics of process:

•  A political leader may be required to commit acts that would be wrong if done by private. In contemporary democracies, this idea has been reframed as the problem of dirty hands (i.e. in handling messy situations, it is impossible to come away clean). It is  argued that the problem creates a paradox: the politician must sometimes do “wrong to do right”. The politician uses violence to prevent greater violence, but his act is still wrong even if justified.
• Some critics object that either the politician is justified or not. If justified, there is nothing wrong, though he may feel guilty. Others say that some of the acts of violence that this theory would allow are never justified, no matter what the ends. In a democracy citizens should hold the leader responsible, and therefore if the act is justified their hands are dirty too. He also shows that in large political organizations it is often not possible to tell who is actually responsible for the outcomes—a problem known as the problem of many hands.

(b) Ethics of policy:

• In the other area of political ethics, the key issues are not the conflict between means and ends but the conflicts among the ends themselves. For example, in the question of global justice, the conflict is between the claims of the nation state and citizens on one side and the claims of all citizens of the world. Traditionally, priority has been given to the claims of nations, but in recent years thinkers known as cosmopolitans have pressed the claims of all citizens of the world.
• Political ethics deals not mainly with ideal justice, however, but with realizing moral values in democratic societies where citizens disagree about what ideal justice is. In a pluralist society, how if at all can governments justify a policy of progressive taxation, affirmative action, the right to abortion, universal healthcare, and the like?
• Political ethics is also concerned with moral problems raised by the need for political compromise, whistleblowing, civil disobedience, and criminal punishment.

7. Public sector ethics

• Public sector ethics is a set of principles that guide public officials in their service to their constituents, including their decision-making on behalf of their constituents.
• Fundamental to the concept of public sector ethics is the notion that decisions and actions are based on what best serves the public’s interests, as opposed to the official’s personal interests (including financial interests) or self-serving political interests.

8. Publication ethics

• Publication ethics is the set of principles that guide the writing and publishing in scientific journals.

Some more topics in Ethics:

Professional ethics:

• Professional ethics encompass the personal, organizational and corporate standards of behaviour expected of professionals.
• Professionals, and those working in acknowledged professions, exercise specialist knowledge and skill. How the use of this knowledge should be governed when providing a service to the public can be considered a moral issue and is termed professional ethics.
• Professionals are capable of making judgements, applying their skills and reaching informed decisions in situations that the general public cannot, because they have not received the relevant training.
• For example, a lay member of the public should not be held responsible for failing to act to save a car crash victim because they could not give an appropriate emergency treatment. This is because they do not have the relevant knowledge and experience. In contrast, a fully trained doctor (with the correct equipment) would be capable of making the correct diagnosis and carrying out appropriate procedures. Failure of a doctor to help in such a situation would generally be regarded as negligent and unethical. An untrained person would not be considered to be negligent for failing to act in such circumstances and might indeed be considered to be negligent for acting and potentially causing more damage and possible loss of life.
• One of the earliest examples of professional ethics is the Hippocratic oath (a new physician to swear, upon a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards) to which medical doctors used to adhere (now also).
• Some professional organizations may define their ethical approach in terms of a number of discrete components. Typically these include:
  • Honesty
  • Integrity
  • Transparency
  • Accountability
  • Confidentiality
  • Objectivity
  • Respectfulness
  • Obedience to the law
  • Loyalty
  • Valuing Time
• Most professions have internally enforced codes of practice that members of the profession must follow to prevent exploitation of the client and to preserve the integrity of the profession. This is not only for the benefit of the client but also for the benefit of those belonging to the profession. Disciplinary codes allow the profession to define a standard of conduct and ensure that individual practitioners meet this standard, by disciplining them from the professional body if they do not practice accordingly. This allows those professionals who act with conscience to practice in the knowledge that they will not be undermined commercially by those who have fewer ethical qualms. It also maintains the public’s trust in the profession, encouraging the public to continue seeking their services.
• In cases where professional bodies regulate their own ethics, there are possibilities for such bodies to become self-serving and to fail to follow their own ethical code when dealing with renegade members.
• In many countries there is some statutory regulation of professional ethical standards. (Like in India Bar Council of India for lawyers)

Work Ethics:

• Work ethic is a value based on hard work and diligence. It is also a belief in the moral benefit of work and its ability to enhance character.
• Workers exhibiting a good work ethic in theory would be selected for better positions, more responsibility and ultimately promotion. Workers who fail to exhibit a good work ethic may be regarded as failing to provide fair value for the wage the employer is paying them and should not be promoted or placed in positions of greater responsibility.
• While some individuals try to get by doing as little work as possible, others possess a dedication that leads them to give it their all every day. People who possess a strong work ethic embody certain principles that guide their work behavior, leading them to produce high-quality work consistently
• Characteristics of good work ethics: