What is the difference between descriptive ethics and normative ...

[maychende]

What is the difference between descriptive ethics and normative ethics?
 
  What is the danger with getting confused between them?

Question 2

What is the position of ethical absolutism with regard to moral values?
 
  How does ethical absolutism refute ethical subjectivism?

[dudman123]

Answer to Question 1

- Descriptive ethics: An ethical approach that simply represents ethical beliefs without evaluating their accuracy or appropriateness.
- Normative ethics: An ethical approach that attempts to prescribe what ethical behaviors should be accepted or become cultural norms.
- Ethical subjectivism stands for the idea that each individual should have their own moral beliefs and that these beliefs are by definition morally right. But this move from a statement about what is the case (People have many different moral beliefs) to a conclusion about what ought to be the case (People should have different moral beliefs and they should act on these beliefs because they are right for them) is illogical and is known in philosophy as committing the naturalistic fallacy.

Answer to Question 2

- Ethical absolutism: The view that at least some moral values are universal and apply to all individuals and cultures in every time period.
- Ethical absolutism doesn't dispute the descriptive facts of cultural variation in moral values: It's in the interpretation of this data where the conflict lies.
- The normative conclusion that there are no absolute moral values that can be applied to all cultures commits the naturalistic fallacy: Simply describing a situation provides no evidence for concluding that this is the way things should be.
- While no system of moral values has yet to be universally accepted, that does not mean that such a system could not exist and be accepted at some point in the future.