Metaethics | Wikipedia Easy Search

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Metaethics" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Ethics
Part of a series on
Outline Category Index
Schools Absolutism Confucianism Deontology Epicureanism Error theory Intuitionism Moralism Nihilism Non-cognitivism Particularism Perspectivism Projectivism Realism Anti-realism Relativism Rousseauism Stoicism Subjectivism Taoism Transcognitivism Universalism Utilitarianism
Concepts Authority Autonomy Common sense Compassion Conscience Consent Culture of life Dignity Double standard Duty Etiquette Eudaimonia Family values Fidelity Free will Good and evil Good Evil Problem of evil Happiness Honour Ideal Intellectual humility Is–ought problem Justice Liberty Loyalty Moral agency Moral courage Moral hierarchy Moral imperative Morality Immorality Norms Rights Self-discipline Social responsibility Suffering Stewardship Sympathy Theodicy Trust Values Intrinsic Vices Virtues Cardinal Vow
Domains Applied Axiological Buddhist Care Christian Descriptive Evolutionary Existentialist Feminist Islamic Jewish Meta Normative Population Pragmatic Role Secular Situational Suffering-focused Virtue
Ethicists Aquinas Aristotle Augustine Bentham Cicero Confucius Foot Hegel Hume Kant Kierkegaard Laozi MacIntyre Mackie Moore Nietzsche Nussbaum Parfit Plato Rawls Schopenhauer Sidgwick Singer Spinoza Taylor
Works After Virtue Animal Liberation Beyond Good and Evil Critique of Practical Reason Either/Or Elements of the Philosophy of Right Ethics (Moore) Ethics (Spinoza) Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals The Moral Landscape Nicomachean Ethics On the Genealogy of Morality The Philosophy of Freedom Practical Ethics Principia Ethica A Theory of Justice The Theory of Moral Sentiments A Treatise of Human Nature Utilitarianism
Related Casuistry Ethics in religion History of ethics Ideology Moral psychology Social philosophy
This is a subseries on philosophy. In order to explore related topics, please visit navigation.
v t e

In metaphilosophy and ethics, metaethics is the study of the nature, scope, and meaning of moral judgment. It is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by philosophers, the others being normative ethics (questions of how one ought to be and act) and applied ethics (practical questions of right behavior in given, usually contentious, situations).

While normative ethics addresses such questions as "What should I do?", evaluating specific practices and principles of action, metaethics addresses questions such as "What is goodness?" and "How can we tell what is good from what is bad?", seeking to understand the assumptions underlying normative theories. Another distinction often made is that normative ethics involves first-order or substantive questions; metaethics involves second-order or formal questions.

Some theorists argue that a metaphysical account of morality is necessary for the proper evaluation of actual moral theories and for making practical moral decisions; others reason from opposite premises and suggest that studying moral judgments about proper actions can guide us to a true account of the nature of morality.