A PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY INTO THE FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES WITH THE MEANING AND NATURE OF ETHICS

Abstract

The concept of ethics is often an object of misconception, misinterpretation and mismatching with other terms like morality, value and aesthetics in philosophy especially among undergraduate students of Arts and Humanities. It is evident that a good number of them are sometimes confused when it comes to the definition and meaning of ethics, its differences from the notion of morality and the relationship between the two in moral philosophy. There are those that do not know why there are various ethical theories and justification for them in the society that cherished such ethical theories. Again, there are young learners who desire to know the similarities, differences and relationship between normative and meta-ethics. Therefore, this paper is concerned with the definition and meaning of ethics, the differences between metaethics and normative ethics, the differences between ethics and morality, the significance each plays in the understanding of ethics and implications inherent in their relationship with one another. Besides, the paper also gives a general survey of special ethics to young and curious minds with reference to various professions that are growing up in leap and bound of our contemporary society.