For the present moment, the meaning of ethics will be:
principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour.
There are three noteworthy perspectives on this issue: objective, subjective and nihilism. The individuals who trust that objective moral values exist trust that ethical values are independent and not affected by the belief or opinion of people. A decent illustration would be:
To say that The Holocaust is objectively evil; is to say that it was evil even though the Nazis who carried it out thought that it was good, and it would still have been evil even if the Nazis had won World War II, and succeeded in brainwashing or exterminating everyone who disagreed with them so that everybody thought The Holocaust was good.
- William Lane Craig
Objective Ethical Esteems
Yet, to state that ethical values exist independent from people suggests the presence of a maker to set these moral esteems. Objective moral values could only exist in the event that they are made and upheld by a higher being than ourselves, (such as God). Objective moral values can only exist if a higher being or God exists.
Subjective Moral Values
In subjective ethical quality, moral esteems depend on a human"s individual thoughts or sentiment. Proof for this is all over the world; many societies change their belief in what they trust moral values are. For instance; take a radical extremist that exploded himself in a public space executing twelve individuals. You may think this is an indecent demonstration to do, you believe that due to your social, religious and family foundations, however to a radical extremist tribe, this is the best thing one would ever endeavour to do. Why is your belief right compared to the person living in the radical extremist tribe? There is no objective drive judging what is viewed as right or wrong, so neither of you is correct, and neither of you are incorrect. This is a disliked position to hold because by this belief system, tormenting a child for entertainment is not inherently evil. However, remember that by this belief value, ethics still exist, there simply is no standard. Another idea to recall is that without people there would be no ethical esteems.
Moral Nihilism
The third position I will be examining is moral nihilism, the belief that ethical values don't exist. For this position, I will be concentrating on the Error Theory, created by Mackie. It depends on three premises:
- There are no ethical features in this world; nothing is correct or incorrect.
- Therefore no ethical judgments are valid; but,
- Our sincere moral beliefs attempt, yet always come up short, to describe the moral features of things.
When we make moral judgements, we are endeavouring to state the truth. Since there is no ethical truth, moral facts don't exist. To put it less complex; learning requires truth, there is no ethical truth, so there is no moral knowledge, in this way moral esteems are just our imagination.
There are numerous more to look at, for example, moral non-cognitivism, moral authenticity, moral suspicion, ethical expressivism, and so forth, but these are my views and thoughts on the topic.
What are your thoughts?