Deals with the nature of moral judgement. It looks at the origins and meaning of ethical principles.

Is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy. The term is derived from the Greek word "ethos" which can mean custom, habit, character or disposition.

based on the idea that there are real objective moral facts or truths in the universe. Moral statements provide factual information about those truths.

In this stage is driven by obedience and punishment. This is a child's view of what is right or wrong.

He established his stages of moral development in 1958. His work addresses the process of how we think of right and wrong and is based on Jean Piaget's theory of moral judgment for children.

rejects prescriptive rules and argues that individual ethical decisions should be made according to the unique situation. Rather than following rules the decision maker should follow a desire to seek the best for the people involved.

______ or deontological ethics is concerned with the actions themselves and not with the consequences. It's the theory that people are using when they refer to "the principle of the thing". It teaches that some acts are right or wrong in themselves, whatever the consequences, and people should act accordingly.

Is the view that moral claims are no more than expressions of approval or disapproval.This sounds like subjectivism, a moral statement doesn't provide information about the speaker's feelings about the topic but expresses those feelings.

think that human beings discover ethical truths that already have an independent existence.

This type of approach ethics is concerned with the content of moral judgements and the criteria for what is right or wrong.

This is the ethical theory that most non-religious people think they use every day. It bases morality on the consequences of human actions and not on the actions themselves. Teaches that people should do whatever produces the greatest amount of good consequences.

acts that break these moral rules - are wrong in themselves, regardless of the circumstances or the consequences of those acts.

This stage goes beyond social norms and an individual develops his own moral compass, sticking to personal principles of what is ethical or not.

Teaches that moral judgments are nothing more than statements of a person's feelings or attitudes, and that ethical statements do not contain factual truths about goodness or badness.

Some people think there are such universal rules that apply to everyone. Argues that there are some moral rules that are always true, that these rules can be discovered and that these rules apply to everyone.

Think that that's just fine, and dispute the idea that there are some objective and discoverable 'super-rules' that all cultures ought to obey. They believe that respects the diversity of human societies and responds to the different circumstances surrounding human acts.

Particularly concerned with the way individuals live their lives, and less concerned in assessing particular actions. It develops the idea of good actions by looking at the way virtuous people express their inner goodness in the things that they do.

looks at controversial topics like war, animal rights and capital punishment (like Perpetua reclusion)

Using the framework of ethics, two people who are arguing a moral issue can often find that what they disagree about is just one particular part of the issue, and that they broadly agree on everything else.

Ethics is about the 'other' Hand holding and supporting another hand. At the heart of ethics is a concern about something or someone other than ourselves and our own desires and self-interest.

Some philosophers teach that ethics is the codification of political ideology, and that the function of ethics is to state, enforce and preserve particular political beliefs. They usually go on to say that ethics is used by the dominant political elite as a tool to control everyone else.

Most moral issues get us pretty worked up think of abortion and euthanasia for starters. Because these are such emotional issues we often let our hearts do the arguing while our brains just go with the flow.

One problem with ethics is the way it's often used as a weapon. If a group believes that a particular activity is "wrong" it can then use morality as the justification for attacking those who practice that activity. When people do this, they often see those who they regard as immoral as in some way less human or deserving of respect than themselves; sometimes with tragic consequences.

ethical statements are instructions or recommendations. So if I say something is good, I'm recommending you to do it, and if I say something is bad, I'm telling you not to do it.

Many people want there to be a single right answer to ethical questions. They find moral ambiguity hard to live with because they genuinely want to do the 'right' thing, and even if they can't work out what that right thing is, they like the idea that 'somewhere' there is one right answer.

think that human beings invent ethical truths.

stage is when we accept societal views on rights and wrongs. In this stage people follow rules with a good boy and nice girl orientation.

Virtue ethics looks at virtue or _________ rather than at ethical duties and rules, or the consequences of action

think that good and bad are real objective properties that can't be broken down into component parts. Something is good because it's good; its goodness doesn't need justifying or proving.