WeMatter.com (Blog): Philosophy(1)

Branches of philosophy

Ethics, or "moral philosophy", is concerned primarily with the question of the best way to live, and secondarily, concerning the question of whether this question can be answered. The main branches of ethics are meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Meta-ethics concerns the nature of ethical thought, such as the origins of the words good and bad, and origins of other comparative words of various ethical systems, whether there are absolute ethical truths, and how such truths could be known. Normative ethics are more concerned with the questions of how one ought to act, and what the right course of action is. This is where most ethical theories are generated.^[7] Lastly, applied ethics go beyond theory and step into real world ethical practice, such as questions of whether or not abortion is correct.^[8] Ethics is also associated with the idea of morality, and the two are often interchangeable.
Political philosophy is the study of government and the relationship of individuals (or families and clans) to communities including the state. It includes questions about justice, law, property, and the rights and obligations of the citizen. Politics and ethics are traditionally inter-linked subjects, as both discuss the question of what is good and how people should live.

2.2 Modern ethics
- 2.2.1 Consequentialism -Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill- the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action (John Rawls)
- 2.2.2 Deontology - Immanuel Kant - determines goodness or rightness from examining acts, rather than third-party consequences of the act as in consequentialism, or the intentions of the person doing the act as in virtue ethics.
2.3 Postmodern ethics