Descriptive ethics, also known as comparative ethics, is the study of people's beliefs about
moralityMorality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct or belief concerning matters of what is moral or immoral...
. It contrasts with prescriptive or
normative ethicsNormative ethics is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when we think about the question “how ought one act, morally speaking?” Normative ethics is distinct from meta-ethics because it examines standards for the rightness and wrongness of actions,...
, which is the study of ethical theories that prescribe how people ought to act, and with
meta-ethicsIn philosophy, meta-ethics is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, and ethical statements, attitudes, and judgments. Meta-ethics is one of the three branches of ethics generally recognized by philosophers, the others being ethical theory and applied ethics...
, which is the study of what ethical terms and theories actually refer to. The following examples of questions that might be considered in each field illustrate the differences between the fields:
- Descriptive ethics: What do people think is right?
- Normative (prescriptive) ethics: How should people act?
- Applied ethics: How do we take moral knowledge and put it into practice?
- Meta-ethics: What does 'right' even mean?
Descriptive ethics is a form of
empiricalThe word empirical denotes information gained by means of observation, experience, or experiment. A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or consequences that are observable by the senses...
research into the attitudes of individuals or groups of people.
Descriptive ethics, also known as comparative ethics, is the study of people's beliefs about
moralityMorality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct or belief concerning matters of what is moral or immoral...
. It contrasts with prescriptive or
normative ethicsNormative ethics is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when we think about the question “how ought one act, morally speaking?” Normative ethics is distinct from meta-ethics because it examines standards for the rightness and wrongness of actions,...
, which is the study of ethical theories that prescribe how people ought to act, and with
meta-ethicsIn philosophy, meta-ethics is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, and ethical statements, attitudes, and judgments. Meta-ethics is one of the three branches of ethics generally recognized by philosophers, the others being ethical theory and applied ethics...
, which is the study of what ethical terms and theories actually refer to. The following examples of questions that might be considered in each field illustrate the differences between the fields:
- Descriptive ethics: What do people think is right?
- Normative (prescriptive) ethics: How should people act?
- Applied ethics: How do we take moral knowledge and put it into practice?
- Meta-ethics: What does 'right' even mean?
What are descriptive ethics?
Descriptive ethics is a form of
empiricalThe word empirical denotes information gained by means of observation, experience, or experiment. A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or consequences that are observable by the senses...
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 idealAn ideal is a principle or value that one actively pursues as a goal. Ideals are particularly important in ethics, as the order in which one places them tends to determine the degree to which one reveals them as real and sincere. It is the application, in ethics, of a universal...
s or what actions societies condemn or punish in
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
or
politicsPolitics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic and religious institutions...
.
Because descriptive ethics involves empirical investigation, it is a field that is usually investigated by those working in the fields of
evolutionary biologyEvolutionary biology is a sub-field of biology concerned with the origin of species from a common descent and descent of species, as well as their change, multiplication and diversity over time. Someone who studies evolutionary biology is known as an evolutionary biologist...
,
psychologyPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
,
sociologySociology is the scientific or systematic study of human societies. It is a branch of social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, often with the goal of applying such...
or
anthropologyAnthropology is the study of human beings, everywhere and throughout time....
. Information that comes from descriptive ethics is, however, also used in philosophical arguments.
Value theoryValue theory encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how, why, and to what degree humans should value things, whether the thing is a person, idea, object, or anything else. This investigation began in ancient philosophy, where it is called axiology or ethics. Early philosophical...
can be either normative or descriptive but is usually descriptive.
Lawrence Kohlberg: An example of descriptive ethics
Lawrence KohlbergLawrence Kohlberg was an American psychologist born in Bronxville, New York, who served as a professor at the University of Chicago, as well as Harvard University. Having specialized in research on moral education and reasoning, he is best known for his theory of stages of moral development...
is one example of a psychologist working on descriptive ethics. In one study, for example, Kohlberg questioned a group of boys about what would be a right or wrong action for a man facing a moral dilemma: should he steal a drug to save his wife, or refrain from theft even though that would lead to his wife's death
Kohlberg's concern was not which choice the boys made, but the moral reasoning that lay behind their decisions. After carrying out a number of related studies, Kohlberg devised a theory about the development of human moral reasoning that was intended to reflect the moral reasoning actually carried out by the participants in his research. Kohlberg's research can be classed as descriptive ethics to the extent that he describes human beings' actual moral development. If, in contrast, he had aimed to describe how humans ought to develop morally, his theory would have involved prescriptive ethics.
Descriptive ethics and moral relativism
Descriptive ethics is often used in arguments that are intended to support
moral relativismIn philosophy moral relativism is the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect universal moral truths . Instead, Moral Relativism makes claims relative to social, cultural, or historical circumstances. Moral relativists hold that no universal standard exists by which to assess an...
(a
meta-ethicalIn philosophy, meta-ethics is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, and ethical statements, attitudes, and judgments. Meta-ethics is one of the three branches of ethics generally recognized by philosophers, the others being ethical theory and applied ethics...
theory about the nature of right and wrong). Such arguments can take several forms, but tend to resemble the following:
- Premise 1: European
The European peoples are the various nations and ethnic groups of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
s believe it is wrong to put old people out in the cold to die.
- Premise 2: The Inuit
Inuit is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, and Alaska...
believe that it is sometimes right to put old people out in the cold to die.
- Premise 3: People in different cultures have different attitudes towards right and wrong.
- Conclusion: What is right or wrong is only a matter of the culture you are living in (i.e. if you are an Inuit you really ought to sometimes put old people out in the cold to die).
This argument results from a confusion about the nature of descriptive and prescriptive ethics. Obviously, it is not a valid step to conclude from the influence culture has on what is judged to be right or wrong, that culture actually makes things right or wrong.
The premises all refer to descriptive ethics; they refer to people's beliefs about what they believe is right to do. The conclusion refers to prescriptive or normative ethics; what people ought to do.(Edward Westermarck, Ethical Relativity)
While it is nonsense to prove moral relativism from descriptive ethics, it follows from a moral relativist stance that only descriptive ethics is possible, because a prescriptive ethics would presuppose the existence of objective or universal ethical rules.
See also
- List of ethics topics
- Meta-ethics
In philosophy, meta-ethics is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, and ethical statements, attitudes, and judgments. Meta-ethics is one of the three branches of ethics generally recognized by philosophers, the others being ethical theory and applied ethics...
- Moral reasoning
Moral reasoning is a study in psychology that overlaps with moral philosophy. It is also called Moral development. Prominent contributors to theory include Lawrence Kohlberg and Elliot Turiel. The term is sometimes used in a different sense: reasoning under conditions of uncertainty, such as...
- Lawrence Kohlberg
Lawrence Kohlberg was an American psychologist born in Bronxville, New York, who served as a professor at the University of Chicago, as well as Harvard University. Having specialized in research on moral education and reasoning, he is best known for his theory of stages of moral development...