Ethics by Recognition Aims

The aim of this chapteristo illustrate howethical systems arearranged. The classification of ethical systems and their usefulness cannot be assessed chronologically. Many ethical systems are still inspirational today and can be used to handle present ethical dilemmas. 1.1 System classification of ethics
Is there any proper way of classifying various ethical systems when they came to life in different historical periods and belonged to different civilisations? Any preconceptions about these systems not being interesting or important enough should be disregarded here.We are going to hold on to the classification proposed by Arthur Rich (Rich 1994), who does not see ethical systems as being split into the usual philosophical, religious, archaic and modern categories. His classification relies on neoethical interests. Rich says that all ethical systems can in this way be categorisedinto three basic groups that can further be broken down into subgroups. 1.2 Descriptive ethics
The word descriptive originates from the Latin word descriptio, which means a drawing, sketch or description. Descriptive ethics describes, or attempts to describe, customs, traditions and behaviour.

Descriptive ethics deals with the ethos of:

nations;

religious groups;Social groups; - dominant cultures within particular nations,and subcultures.Descriptive ethics is an empirical science. Arthur Rich speaks of it as a discipline about morality (Rich 1994). He describes the moral side as follows: it is what certain tribes, nations, cultures, social groups or classes regard as "moral” or "immoral” and the impact it has on the whole of human culture. It is about finding out about the impacts of moral projections or basic conditions.Descriptive ethics strives to explain what "is" ethical, or more precisely what represents "moral" or "immoral" among certain tribes, nations, cultures, social groups and classes, and how this impacts on the cultural context. It further explores factors behind the transformation of ethical values or basic conditions (biological, psychological, sociological) that influence certain behaviour and actions (Rich 1994). Friedo Ricken formulates descriptive ethics as a discipline about morals (Ricken 1995). He explains the moral side as follows: it comprises all the statements, rules, actions and institutions that determine human behaviour and need to be further specified.The following chart sheds more light on the goals that descriptive ethics aims to achieve.

In business ethics, descriptive ethics should examine the ethos of: companies;COIS1 IneS.There are further areas in companies ethos that involve descriptive ethics:company culture; the decision-making culture and redistribution of responsibilities for key decisions; relations between employees and the company; - responsibility towards the Whole of society; responsibility towards the environment.In terms of consumer ethos, descriptive ethics should further examine: consumer rights when handling purchased goods; consumer obligations when handling used and unwanted goods (ecological disposal).Goals of descriptive ethics: In summary, we can reiterate that the main objective of studying descriptive ethics is to strive for moral and ethical life from the perspective of different historical eras and geographical places. In business ethics, this should depict the moral and ethical activities of companies (employers and employee) and their customers.

1.3 Normative ethics
Ethics cannot be satisfied with the mere ability to describe. By only describing what business relations are like, it would give up on its main task of helping people answer one of the most fundamental questions about their existence: the question of how they should act in a way that is good and makes sense.Normative ethics tries to establish conditions that allow predictions to be made about one's future decisions, in terms of what a person should do. It deals with the creation of preconditions for proper course of action and the right choices in life.

Before setting goals for one's life or career, everybody should know the answer to what is proper in life. Is it material well-being? Is it the spiritual way of life? The nature of the answers will determine ones overall personal direction and set a course towards other specific life aspirations.When those questions are narrowed down to the domain of ethics, they become searches for proper life values.These values are understood as:- individual good; - general good.Ones overall life aspiration is considered general good. It puts human life into a holistic context and contributes to enhancing human personality. The history of ethics offers a whole range of examples here, such as Epicurean hedonism, Stoic life courage, Christian hope or modern utilitarianism.Knowing what represents good overall is crucial not only for the totality of life values, goals and the proper direction of an individual, but also for the whole of society. In general, setting a course for what is regarded as good influences an individual's course of proper action.

Example: Let us take the modern globalised economy as an example. It is apparent that constantly developing economies cannot dwell on ascetic ideals because consumption is their engine. Is there an ethical system that best characterises the ethos of modern culture? The answer is easy: utilitarianism. We are going to take a closer look at this in the next chapter, as it is not enough to say that utilis means'usefulness, but also the ability to make use of something.Talk of normative ethics does not explain what the ethos of contemporary society is. That explanation belongs to descriptive ethics. Normative ethics searches for answers to what the ethos of society should be. It starts from a descriptive observation of the present state and moves on to finding new options. The objectives of normative ethics in economics: Normative ethics assesses economic models by their impact on the environment, society, all social classes and future sustainability. In general, it searches for a model that would ensure economic benefit for all participants, while minimising possible negative effects. 1.4 Meta-ethics
Are there tools and methodological techniques capable of verifying the work of both descriptive and normative ethics? How should the work of normative ethicians be checked? Is this possible at all?

1.4.1 Non-cognitivism
Let us start with negative answers to our questions.Non-cognitivists maintain that you cannot tell whether one ethical rules is better than another. Hence, itis all the more impossible to determine any generally-applied proper course that would be binding to all.The modern positivist philosophy is the best supporting basis for this kind of thinking. This philosophy strives to invent criteria for establishing truths, in a similar way to natural science disciplines like physics or chemistry.Natural science only takes into consideration facts that are empirically proven. The only thing that belongs to ethics is describing the moral and ethical status quo. This is descriptive ethics, provided the description refrains from any judgmental statements because there is no better or Worse good. The concept of good can only be subjective. 1.4.2 Cognitivism
Cognitivism is based on the presumption that the moral and ethical rules can be identified. It maintains that human thought, speech and action can be analysed from moral and ethical points of view. No human concepts or actions are ethically neutral.

All that humans do - every deed they conceive that is put into action - has consequences. The values adhered to by society, the ethical maxims it follows and the rules it sticks to all reflect on the real time and situation.The mortgage crisis of 2008-2010 is a good example. The mortgage crisis transformed in that period into the liquidity crisis, which had a significant impact on global markets.Meta-ethics examines ethical concepts by using language logic tools. 1.4.3 Objectives of meta-ethics
There is an approach that can delve into both the concepts and methods of ethical ideas (Ricken 1995). This is called a wide approach to meta-ethics and it not only treats the Way moral and ethical concepts Work very seriously, but also puts an emphasis on describing how good ethical values are formed. It is not only about exploring the moral and ethical "what, but also the "how".Another narrower approach is a reduction of the moral and ethical to the mere "what” – the World of concepts alone (Ricken 1995). This is for instance shown in the statement: "Good should be practiced, while Wrong should not.” 1.5 Graphical depiction
Ethics by field of interest can be divided into descriptive ethics, normative ethics and meta-ethics.