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INTRODUCTION
Aristotle in his book "Politics" described man as "zoon politikon" which means "political animal ". It
suggests that no man is an island that is self sufficient,he said anyone who cannot live in a society or
has no need is either a beast or a god.But the fact that humans living together is inevitable has some
challenges, one of such relates to having a code of conduct which guides everyone in relating with other
persons. However the rules in a society not only state how individuals should relate with one another
but also with things that are of value to the society.
ETHICS AND ITS GOALS
Ethics is a field of philosophy where the analytical and critical tools of philosophy are focused on human
actions. It seeks to unearth the nature of morality and what the right moral judgment entails. It touches
every facet of life where one can point to one human conduct or the other. This is the reason for the
existence of an ethics of nearly everything; Business, Environment, Work, Christian, Medical etc. All
variations of ethics recognize that there are diverse ethical challenges that lurk around in different
disciplines and facets of life that require effective response that is able to ensure that moral principles
are sustained in the various areas of human operations. It is a rational inquiry into the grounds of moral
conduct which stands in contrast to revelations, special intuition and other arbitrary means for obtaining
answers to moral questions. It is practiced with the belief that human beings are rational and that as
rational beings they will seek adequate reasons or relevant evidence that will enable them make
justifiable decisions concerning their actions in their quest to determine the proper way to behave.The
ultimate aim of ethics is to furnish human beings with standards with which theycan make distinction
between all actions. The aim of this division categories actions into two - the good or the bad, the right
or the wrong. By doing this, ethics seeks to highlight which actions are valuable and which actions are
ignoble. A good knowledge of ethics provides a guide for political leaders, public servants, and
professionals regarding how to conduct the affairs of a group of people. Ethics has two sub branches
called - Metaethics and Normative ethics.
METAETHICS
This is a sub- branch dedicated to engendering a better understanding of concepts and terms
employed in ethical discourse so that people are better positioned to interrogate principles of
action in ethical reasoning. The issues addressed in metaethics do not concern determining the
rightness or wrongness of an action rather they have to do with terms like- right, wrong, good,
bad,morality etc. Just to clarify what is good Antinaturalism, says that goodness is a simple,
nonnatural, and indefineable property. Metaethics is also concerned with the meaning of
ethical statements example- Emotivism which is a metaethical theory will have us interpret the
statement "stealing is wrong", as revealing the emotion of the speaker and, at the same time, a
call to sharing the same time, a call to sharing the same sentiment towards the idea of stealing
ie. Such statement is a linguistic act by which the speaker expresses his attitude over an actionstealing and seeks to influence the attitude of the listener.
Prescriptivism is another metaethical theory that suggests how moral statements should be
understood. This theory holds that when an ethical statement is made, one is making a
universalizable prescription regarding an act one condenms or approves. For instance when one
says stealing is wrong one is recommending that stealing is morally bad, and that everyone
should not steal.
Some metaethical theories try to explain the origin or justification of moral standards. The
divine command theory is an example of metaethical theories addressing this issue. This theory
speculates that an action is right or wrong depending on what God says - if God says it is right
then it is right and vice versa. Another theory is the Ethical Relativism, which speculates that it
is the individual, culture, or epoch that determines or justifies the rightness or wrongness of an
action.From this perspective one is expected to seek the justification for moral codes by
evaluating the culture from which an individual comes or by considering the time during which
the individual lived or focusing on the individual's belief system. Simon Blackburn defined ethics
as " the study of the concepts involved in practical reasoning, good, right, duty, obligation etc.
NORMATIVE ETHICS
There are some actions everyone will readily agree is wrong example stealing, murder
etc.Normative ethics is the sub-branch of moral philosophy that deals with this issue. Its main
focus is on determining the principles that ought to guide human conduct or the formulation of
moral rules that have direct implications for what human actions, institutions and ways oc life
should be like. The first set of theories are called Teleological Ethical theories- they have in
common the emphasis placed on the consequence of an action in determining its rightness ir
wrongness . Some moral philosophers are of the view that it is the ability of an action to bring
pleasure that determines whether the result of the action is good, while an action that brings
pain is bad.Others have however used the term happiness in qualifying the goodness of the
consequence of an action. Eudaemonism in ethics is used to capture the idea that happiness is
the chief good. Then the question happiness and pleasure for who comes up and three
normative theories try to answer the question. They are:
Ethical Egoism- this states that the performer of an action should seek to maximize pleasure or
happiness for himself. In other words, when performing an action the individual should place
themself first. To counter this theory was that of Ethical Altruism- this states that the criteria for
determining that which is right or wrong has to do with whether the deed promotes the
interest of others rather than ones interest. Then there is the theory of Utilitarianism-which
states that an action is morally right if it promotes if it promotes the greatest number of
pleasure or happiness for the greatest number of people.
Teleological ethical theories have some short comings. One is that they require we foresee the
outcome of our actions, which incidentally is what humans are not capable of. Some
consequences which are foreseen to bring good results sometimes end up producing bad ones
and vice versa. Another is that it makes it appear that the end justifies the means. But the
problem is that an evil means cannot justify a good end. If an action was carried out with a bad
motive even if the product is good it is still considered not morally right.
The inadequacies of the Teleological ethical theories made some philosophers favour
Deontological Ethical Theories- they reject the use of the outcome of an action in judging its
rightness or wrongness. Moderate deontological theories hold that consequences matter but
only as one of the factors relevant in determining the moral matter rightness of an action, while
extreme deontological ethical theories totally reject the relevance of consequences in
determining if an action is morally right or wrong example is Kant's Moral Theory.