Types of Ethical Claims

Descriptive Ethics:

claims about what some person(s) or society(ies) believe(s) to be morally right or wrong
Normative Ethics:
claims about what is morally right or wrong
Metaethics:
claims about the nature of moral right or wrong

Descriptive ethics:social scientists (sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, . . .)
Normative ethics:preachers, parents, normative ethical theorists (philosophers)
Metaethics:philosophers

Richard Lee, rlee@comp.uark.edu, last modified: 24 February 1999