Examine different ways in which ‘good’ is used in Meta Ethics Essay

In the modern degrading gild we live in to daytime, muckle ar constantly questioning the highly debatable topic of morals. We would like to think that we are trying our hardest to strive to do what is serious in society to make us decent stack. However it is hard to do what is swell when there are so many different ways of formation the means of sound itself.There are three main types of piety, Descriptive, Prescriptive and Meta ethics. Descriptive ethics presents the f influences in the way people live and how they make moral choices in life. It simply tell aparts the facts without making any moral judgement of proper or bad. Prescriptive ethics states the norm about what is right or wrong(p) by examining the choices and the fountains behind the issues. It says how we should live or be fuddle setting standards for every(prenominal) unrivaled to live by. This is the most widely engrossd form of estimable language when debating morality. Meta ethics is a philosophic al analysis of different words used in ethical language. It closely examines the words themselves and their exact nitty-gritty in different contexts.The subject of Meta ethics is to intimately study the moral language to be able to reach a better taste of its centre. Without the knowledge and intense understanding of the language we use in moral debates, we canfulnot argue our points successfully or be able to come to any logical remainder. Therefore it is vitally necessary that we de terminal figureine the meaning of the words we use so we can successfully take part in these ethical discussions.The most important ethical term, which unfortunately is so loosely used in society, is the term good. We frequently hear of a concert being good or that somebody is a good person or it is good to be peaceful. But when we so casually use the term good do we actually know what we are implying? What does the term good mean in itself? Surely we should all be able to instantly provide an an swer to this question because we all use the term good on a regular basis. However we find that when posed with this question, many are not sure themselves of the core meaning of the word.In this essay I shall be examining the intensity of the ethical term good and what people mean when they determine something to be good of bad. We need to decide in fact, if it is actually potential to ascertain the word good at all or does it depend totally on the stain, having a slightly different meaning in every different context.The meaning of the term good is not necessarily something that we all naturally agree on. There are many factors that affect the reasons why we see the meaning of good to be what it is. Some examples of this include the sources of our values and morals, how we are brought up and the way our conscience plays a part in our every day lives. Naturally everyone may see different situations to be different degrees of good or bad in their opinion.A key concept leading to t he understanding of something being good is Definism. This idea is that we need to define accurately what we mean by the term good before we can specifically distinguish if something is good or bad. Once we subscribe classified the meaning of good we can thence accordingly judge every situation or act against it. When we have identified the essence of the term in itself we can grasp the ideas and understandings behind it. However many ask, can the term good universally be delimitate? We shall now look at the different ways society tries to identify the word good.There are two main ways of defining a moral act, these being absolute and relative terms. Absolute moral terms are when something is perceived as forever and a day being good or right regardless of the situation or the facts involved. This is overly kn take in as an objective term, it is completely independent of all conditions to determine its moral goodness. every last(predicate) absolute moral terms are known univer sally as always being correct regardless. For example, many argue that Peace will always be good along with happiness. These terms should apply to everyone in society in every situation because they will always be right and strive to reach them can never be wrong.Relative terms are the direct opposite of absolute terms. When something is relative, it totally depends on the specific situation it is in. It is also dependent on peoples personal opinions. Everyone views situations in their own way, which is slightly different to everyone else. It all relies on what you believe it to be in your own individual opinion. The term good therefore can only be determined in its particular context. This is also known as Subjectiveness, for example mercy cleaning or fighting for a cause you believe in are two examples of relative situations of doing a good thing.There are several theories we can look at in which the term good is used in Meta ethics. The first of these is the utilitarian theory of good. According to this theory, a term is determined as being good pending the results of a specific moral act. For example, if we were in the situation where we had to kill one person to save the lives of thousands of former(a)s then this would be seen as good. This is because although the sacrifice of one life is not good in itself alone, because it saves the lives of many more it is seen as the greater good because it is the lesser of two evils. The results of killing one person to save many are much greater than the act of killing one in the first place. The evil of killing one is cancelled out by the good of saving so many others. Therefore the utilitarian theory of good can be measured by what it achieves.Another important theory is that of Natural law. The term good is used in this part of Meta ethics according to how well something fulfils its purpose. The key philosopher that brought this idea into ethical recognition was Aristotle in ancient Greece many years ago. He b elieved that everything existing has a natural purpose in life in which it is aiming towards as its supreme goal. This means that the level of goodness something is, is measured by how much a particular act contributes to the net purpose the object has. If it helps to fulfil this purpose then it is a morally good act, however if it makes it harder to fulfil its purpose then it is considered bad.This idea of Natural law lead on to the development of Christian theology, especially by the greatly admired philosopher St Thomas Aquinas who linked Aristotles ideas with Christianity. In religion, the term good is related to what God would or wouldnt approve of. If God saw a certain act as acceptable or if it fulfilled a command from him from a religious consecrated Book then it would be seen as good. For example devoting time to worship him would be seen as good but committing adultery would be seen as bad in Gods eyes. The ultimate good example in Christianity is Jesus whose life was s een to be morally good because everything he did was approved of by God. He was perfect and therefore Christians today try to follow in his footsteps and do as he did.Goodness is unlike any other quality and the ultimate aim for all living things according to many people. Something can therefore be determined as good because it is unique, individual and supreme. We can detect this by the simple skill of human intuition because the goodness is self-evident. This approach is known as Intuitionism or Ethical non-naturalism. Because it is a unique feature, it is very dependent on different situations or circumstances. The term good will therefore have an individual meaning for different acts that will only apply to that one situation and could have a totally different meaning in another circumstance. We can also determine good because intuition tells us the results it has are beneficial to others or ourselves. However, even though the consequences may benefit and be good, it is impossi ble to define the word from an intuitional point of view because it is always changing depending on the factors involved.G E Moore is the most famous example of an Intuitionist. He claimed the term good was incapable of definition because it is simple and has no parts. He believed too that the term had a different meaning that changed depending the circumstances or different situations the word is used. He likened this to a horse, they have many properties and qualities that make a horse a horse but if you reduce a horse to its simplest terms, you can not define these terms.The phrase good will have a certain meaning not only for different situations but also for different people. Many people can observe an act but they may disagree as to whether the act was good or not depending on their conscience and opinion. Intuitionism means it has a distinct meaning for you. G E Moore gave the example of the colour yellow, we cannot define a colour, we may be able to give examples of things t hat are yellow but to give an actual definition of yellow is quite impossible. He believed that we should judge the goodness of an run based on its results, aiming to maximise good in the world. He was a strong intuitionist, which involved the belief that within us we have a moral faculty which reveals moral truth to us, showing us what was morally good.Another focal area of Meta ethics, which involves language, is Emotivism or ethical non-Cognitivism. Emotivism is sometimes viewed as merely the expression of feelings of the speaker. They can be seen more as commands or rules the speakers wants its audience to follow. These feelings are the opinions of the speaker saying what they believe to be right or wrong and are dependent on a matter of taste. The term good is accordingly defined depending on what the speaker believes to be right. They state a moral preference of what they do or do not approve of and not the core meaning itself.The preferences of the speaker therefore, try to influence the opinions of the audience. They are not concerned with the moral avouchments themselves or their meaning but more focused on the purpose of the statement. The speaker indents on promoting a response from the audience relating to what is right or wrong.This theory is also known as the Boo and Hooray theory which can be seen as offensive because it is seen to reduce morality to simple cheers or shuttlecocks. It is called this because when listening to a point of view, the audience simply shouts hooray to say something is good or that they approve of it or boo if they disagree and think it is morally bad. However one problem with this theory is that in a modern society, we do not irrationally act merely on our feelings and emotions alone. We use logical thinking and reasoning too and this therefore must be included.Prescriptivism solved this problem by using reason to determine goodness. R M Hare who tried to examine what was actually happening when a person was making a moral statement took the best example of this approach. He tried to find out what was it meant to do and if moral statements had a purpose. This type of Meta ethics tries to prescribe a course of perform that is recommended. . For example, the speaker may say To be considered a good person, we should try our hardest to help those less fortunate than ourselves. By saying this he is expressing what a good person is and also is suggesting a course of action we should take, i.e. helping others.As a result of this way of talking, the speaker is very opinionated and thus forcing an action as a result of his beliefs. The speaker is giving advice that applies to all situations at any given time regardless of other factors. It is Universable and therefore applies to all people in every situation. The theory of Universability is a general idea that can be applied to past, present and future and to all other people.In conclusion we can see that there are many different ways in which the te rm good is used in Meta ethics. In Intuitionism it is used to get a line moral principles that are self evidently right. In Emotivism, when we say something is good, it is what we see as being right according to out emotions and feelings. Prescriptivism on the other hand uses reason and logic to determine what is good. Utilitarianists perceive something to be good pending the results that follow the action. How we determine what is good or bad to ourselves, greatly depends on which ethical view we take to situations as a result of our opinion. There is no one definition for what is good and so it is down to us to decide which one we believe to be right and then try to live our lives accordingly.