Is happiness the greatest good in life?
ETHICS AND THE EXAMINED LIFE Á 5
Science also studies morality, but not in the way that moral philosophy does. Its approach is known as descriptive ethics—the scientific study of moral beliefs and practices. Its aim is to describe and explain how people actually behave and think when dealing with moral issues and concepts. This kind of empirical research is usually conducted by sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists. In contrast, the focus of moral phi- losophy is not what people actually believe and do, but what they should believe and do. The point of moral philosophy is to determine what actions are right (or wrong) and what things are good (or bad).
Philosophers distinguish three major divisions in ethics, each one representing a different way to approach the subject. The first is normative ethics—the study of the principles, rules, or theo- ries that guide our actions and judgments. (The word normative refers to norms, or standards, of judgment—in this case, norms for judging rightness and goodness.) The ultimate purpose of doing normative ethics is to try to establish the soundness of moral norms, especially the norms embodied in a comprehensive moral system, or theory. We do normative ethics when we use crit- ical reasoning to demonstrate that a moral princi- ple is justified, or that a professional code of conduct is contradictory, or that one proposed moral theory is better than another, or that a per- son’s motive is good. Should the rightness of actions be judged by their consequences? Is happi- ness the greatest good in life? Is utilitarianism a good moral theory? Such questions are the preoc- cupation of normative ethics.
Another major division is metaethics—the study of the meaning and logical structure of moral beliefs. It asks not whether an action is right or whether a person’s character is good. It takes a step back from these concerns and asks more fun- damental questions about them: What does it mean for an action to be right? Is good the same
then it is wrong. If you believe it is right, then it is right.
But these facile ways through ethical terrain are no better than blindly accepting existing norms. Even if you want to take the subjectivist route, you still need to critically examine it to see if there are good reasons for choosing it— otherwise your choice is arbitrary and therefore not really yours. And unless you thoughtfully consider the merits of moral beliefs (including subjectivist beliefs), your chances of being wrong about them are substantial.
Ethics does not give us a royal road to moral truth. Instead, it shows us how to ask critical ques- tions about morality and systematically seek answers supported by good reasons. This is a tall order because, as we have seen, many of the ques- tions in ethics are among the toughest we can ever ask—and among the most important in life.