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The question before the court was whether "incapable of distinguishing right from wrong" refers to distinguishing between moral right and moral wrong, vs. being able to distinguish what is legal from what is not legal. [3]: 615 The court concluded: "that the term 'wrong' in the statutory definition of insanity refers to moral wrong."
An action is morally right if it is in tune with a person's obligations and morally wrong if it violates them. [103] Supererogation is a special moral status that applies to cases in which the agent does more than is morally required of them. [104]
Normative ethics – concerns what people should believe to be right and wrong. Consequentialism – moral theories that hold that the consequences of one's conduct are the true basis for any judgement about the morality of that conduct. Thus, a morally right act (or omission) is one that will produce a good outcome (the end justifies the means).
One important characteristic of many normative moral theories such as consequentialism is the ability to produce practical moral judgements. At the very least, any moral theory needs to define the standpoint from which the goodness of the consequences are to be determined. What is primarily at stake here is the responsibility of the agent. [41]
Meta-ethical moral relativists believe not only that people disagree about moral issues, but that terms such as "good", "bad", "right" and "wrong" do not stand subject to universal truth conditions at all; rather, they are relative to the traditions, convictions, or practices of an individual or a group of people. [7]
Moral wrong is an underlying concept for legal wrong. Some moral wrongs are punishable by law, for example, rape or murder. [2] Other moral wrongs have nothing to do with law but are related to unethical behaviours. [3] On the other hand, some legal wrongs, such as many types of parking offences, could hardly be classified as moral wrongs. [2]
Moral injury is a relatively new concept that seems to describe what many feel: a sense that their fundamental understanding of right and wrong has been violated, and the grief, numbness or guilt that often ensues. Here, you will meet combat veterans struggling with the moral and ethical ambiguities of war.
In this context normative ethics is sometimes called prescriptive, as opposed to descriptive ethics. However, on certain versions of the view of moral realism, moral facts are both descriptive and prescriptive at the same time. Most traditional moral theories rest on principles that determine whether an action is right or wrong.