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META-ETHICS

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy highlights why there has been a lack of writings of
virtue theory textbooks on ethical theories:
Textbooks "…now try to include articles representative of each of the three normative
approaches but are often unable to find any virtue ethics article addressing a particular issue.
This is sometimes, no doubt, because "the" issue has been set up as a deontologicial/utilitarian
debate, but it is often simply because no virtue ethicist has yet written on the topic. However,
this area can certainly be expected to grow in the future." [1]

The motivation to the framework I am proposing is a metaethic of "calling" or viewing your
role in society as a vocation, similar to a profession of a doctor or priest who are both called
into actions beyond their own personal gain. A business leader within the organization needs
a purpose beyond their work environment that drives them to make ethical decisions or even
apply an ethical model.[2] Without this motivation or reason why would a business leader
want to make good decisions beyond those that would benefit the company's profits? This
especially becomes a concern in areas that are not legally binding and fall into seemly grey
areas that without an ethical model would drive profits to rule out ethical decisions. These
"grey" areas are important because the decisions made within this area can move companies
to large-scale unethical behavior and practice, especially in countries that do not have clearly
defined laws (i.e. child labor practices within India).[3]

According to Richard Garner and Bernard Rosen,[4] there are three kinds of meta-ethical
problems, or three general questions:
- What is the meaning of moral terms or judgments?
- What is the nature of moral judgments?
- How may moral judgments be supported or defended?

A question of the first type might be, "What do the words 'good', 'bad', 'right' and 'wrong'
mean?" (see value theory). The second category includes questions of whether moral
judgments are universal or relative, of one kind or many kinds, etc. Questions of the third
kind ask, for example, how we can know if something is right or wrong, if at all. Garner and
Rosen say that answers to the three basic questions "are not unrelated, and sometimes an
answer to one will strongly suggest, or perhaps even entail, an answer to another."[4]

A meta-ethical theory, unlike a normative ethical theory, does not attempt to evaluate specific
choices as being better, worse, good, bad, or evil; although it may have profound implications
as to the validity and meaning of normative ethical claims. An answer to any of the three
example questions above would not itself be a normative ethical statement.

[1] Ibid
[2] 18 Payson Johnston, "Business and Organizational Leadership as a Vocation: A Renewed
Approach to Business," (University of San Francisco, 2005).
[3] Augendra Bhukuth and JÈrÙme Ballet, "Is Child Labour a Substitute for Adult Labour?,"
International Journal of Social Economics 33, no. 8 (2006).
[4] Garner, Richard T.; Bernard Rosen (1967). Moral Philosophy: A Systematic Introduction to
Normative Ethics and Meta-ethics. New York: Macmillan. p. 215. LOC card number 67-18887.