ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on moral values, or ethical principles, in their own right. It sketches some elements of what is normally called 'Normative Ethical Theory'. The chapter introduces some of the issues in what philosophers call 'Meta-ethical Theory'. It distinguishes three types of ethical theory: Descriptive Ethics, Normative Ethics and Meta-ethics. The author point is that descriptive ethics, being solely concerned with what is the case, is silent as to what should be the case. Professional ethical questions are ones best conceived of as lying within the domain of applied ethics. Normative ethics is that area of moral philosophy that tries to answer that question. Meta-ethics is thinking about ethics, in particular, thinking about the nature of moral values and value judgements. Humans engage in all sorts of intellectual, or quasi-intellectual, enterprises, science, art, religion and so on - and we'll be trying to work out what is distinctive about one of them: ethics.
