Download Ethical subjectivism, also called moral subjectivism, is a

Catholic College of Mandeville
Tamara Green
Course: Personal Development and Ethics
Title: Beginning to Understand Ethics
Activity
In two or three brief statement, clear sentences answer the following question.
1. Ethics is a part of philosophy. What are the basic questions of ethics?
Here are four (4) basic questions of ethics:
1) What shall I do?
2) What should be done?
3) What ought we do in a given situation?
4) What is the right action, or the wrong action?
2. Describe ethics as Emotivism.
Emotivism is a meta-ethical view that claims that ethical sentences do not express propositions
but emotional attitudes. Emotivism is no longer a view of ethics that has many supporters. Like
subjectivism it teaches that there are no objective moral facts, and that therefore 'murder is
wrong' can't be objectively true. Emotivism also holds that moral judgments of right or wrong
behaviour are a function of the positive or negative feelings evoked by the behaviour.
3. Describe ethics as cultural relativism.
Cultural relativism is the view that all beliefs, customs, and ethics are relative to the individual
within his own social context. . What is "good" is what is "socially approved" in a given culture.
Our moral principles describe social conventions and must be based on the norms of our
society. Cultural relativist views themselves as tolerant; they see other cultures, ‘not as wrong’
but as ‘different’.
4. Describe ethics as subjectivism.
Ethical subjectivism, also called moral subjectivism, is a philosophical theory that suggests
moral truths are determined on an individual.It holds that there are no objective moral
properties and that ethical statements are illogical because they do not express immutable
truths. This makes ethical subjectivism a form of cognitivism. People have different opinions,
but where morality is concerned, there are no “facts,”, and no one is “right.” People just feel
differently.
5. If ethics is not a matter of feeling or opinion, what do you believe is the real
foundation or roots of ethics?
Ethics is a requirement for human life. It is our means of deciding a course of action. Without it, our
actions would be random and aimless. There would be no way to work towards a goal because there
would be no way to pick between a limitless numbers of goals. The proper foundation of ethics requires
a standard of value to which all goals and actions can be compared to. This standard is our own lives,
and the happiness which makes them livable. This is our ultimate standard of value, the goal in which an
ethical man must always aim.