ABSTRACT
Applied ethics is a branch of philosophy which employs ethical theory and the methods of philosophical reasoning to illuminate and resolve important practical problems. In so doing, applied ethics addresses issues which go beyond purely theoretical ethical concerns with the systematic justification of moral judgements, dealt with by normative ethics, and questions about the nature of moral statements, which is the province of meta-ethics. Instead of focusing on those theoretical issues, applied ethics takes as its subject matter the more immediate problems confronted in our lives and in the lives of those with whom we share the world. It does so by bringing the distinctive strengths of philosophical analysis and argument to bear on a variety of practical issues such as abortion, euthanasia, warfare and environmental pollution. These are the kinds of issues which feature prominently in our popular press, but the deeper ethical questions they raise receive scant if any attention there.
