ASSIGNMENT 1
PLS3701
NOSIPHO NZIMANDE
STUDENT NUMBER: 58293523 UNIQUE NUMBER: 719477
, INTRODUCTION
Ethics, also known as Moral Philosophy. Ethics can either be good or bad, they affect how
decisions are made and may impact an individual in both good and bad ways. Ethics can be
derived from religion, philosophies and culture, highly diplomat topics, human rights and
professional conduct, (BBC, 2014). Ethics teach people how to live a good life and taking
responsibility and how to make important decisions.
BODY
Ethical theories and their goals
Descriptive Ethics
Descriptive ethics are ethics that motivate liberal behaviour, how people reason with the ethics at
hand, what people believe in, what people believe to have overriding importance and how
societies practise behaviour, (ethicalrealism.wordpress.com. Descriptive ethics evaluate how
people act and create a certain standard or rules on how they should carry themselves. The goal
of descriptive ethics is to teach people what is good and to live by it and how their attitudes are
towards given ethics (rules), for instance every household has its owns rules if the parents lay
down rules that the children should follow and act by them, if they do not follow the rules there
will punishment. Descriptive ethics attempts to give us account of what a certain set of ethical
tenets are, they can be judged by the way of the evidence, (PLS3701, supp. Reading, 2022).
Normative Ethics
Normative ethics use arguments to show norms and certain rules, (PLS3701, supp. Reading,
2022).
Claims Concerning Normative Ethics,
It wrong to kill people just because they made you angry.
Slaves should be fought for so that, they can be free even its illegal.
Pain is intrinsically bad, we shall not cause without a good reason to do so.
It is reasonable for a person to give charity to those in need, even there is no reciprocation
expected, (ethical.realism.wordpress.com).
Normative theories are classified into three ethic theories namely, teleological,
deontological and virtue ethics, the goal of normative ethics is to look for the best
outcome or considering how a good person would act, (PLS3701, Study Guide).
PLS3701
NOSIPHO NZIMANDE
STUDENT NUMBER: 58293523 UNIQUE NUMBER: 719477
, INTRODUCTION
Ethics, also known as Moral Philosophy. Ethics can either be good or bad, they affect how
decisions are made and may impact an individual in both good and bad ways. Ethics can be
derived from religion, philosophies and culture, highly diplomat topics, human rights and
professional conduct, (BBC, 2014). Ethics teach people how to live a good life and taking
responsibility and how to make important decisions.
BODY
Ethical theories and their goals
Descriptive Ethics
Descriptive ethics are ethics that motivate liberal behaviour, how people reason with the ethics at
hand, what people believe in, what people believe to have overriding importance and how
societies practise behaviour, (ethicalrealism.wordpress.com. Descriptive ethics evaluate how
people act and create a certain standard or rules on how they should carry themselves. The goal
of descriptive ethics is to teach people what is good and to live by it and how their attitudes are
towards given ethics (rules), for instance every household has its owns rules if the parents lay
down rules that the children should follow and act by them, if they do not follow the rules there
will punishment. Descriptive ethics attempts to give us account of what a certain set of ethical
tenets are, they can be judged by the way of the evidence, (PLS3701, supp. Reading, 2022).
Normative Ethics
Normative ethics use arguments to show norms and certain rules, (PLS3701, supp. Reading,
2022).
Claims Concerning Normative Ethics,
It wrong to kill people just because they made you angry.
Slaves should be fought for so that, they can be free even its illegal.
Pain is intrinsically bad, we shall not cause without a good reason to do so.
It is reasonable for a person to give charity to those in need, even there is no reciprocation
expected, (ethical.realism.wordpress.com).
Normative theories are classified into three ethic theories namely, teleological,
deontological and virtue ethics, the goal of normative ethics is to look for the best
outcome or considering how a good person would act, (PLS3701, Study Guide).