ABSTRACT
Moral philosophy attempts to answer the question of how one should live. Moral philosophy as a whole can be usefully divided into three basic areas: metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Since the most basic moral principles will probably be stated in rather general terms, it will not always be apparent what to do in particular situations or in morally complex cases. Unlike the distinction between normative ethics and applied ethics—where almost everyone agrees that there is no sharp line—many moral philosophers have thought that there is indeed a sharp logical distinction to be drawn between normative ethics and metaethics. There are on-going philosophical debates, for example, over issues like the morality of capital punishment, abortion, and affirmative action. Some philosophers take the extreme position that certain intuitions should be treated as givens—no theory that fails to accommodate them can possibly be acceptable.
