Normative Ethics

• A major branch of ethics deals with "normative ethics," and attempts to define a basic moral code and identify types of ethical systems that define behavior. This can be a single, overarching value (such as the Golden Rule); more often, it is a collection of foundational ideas (such as the Ten Commandments). Within this branch of ethics is a debate between "value-based systems," "duty-based systems" and "consequential theories."
  
  

Approaches to Normative Ethics

• Value-based systems involve learning moral codes and acting in line with them. For example, values like "don't kill" and "don't steal" are taught early, and we are expected to adhere to these values. In a duty-based system, people learn behaviors rather than values: we should act based on our duties, rather than a codified set of morals, so we don't kill or steal because we have duties to other people and to society. In a consequential system, people act based on outcomes: not stealing produces the best outcome because the owner does not lose anything, and we do not end up being punished.
  
  

Applied Ethics

• Applied ethics is another branch of ethics, with the goal of using ethical debates for practical outcomes. For example, a debate over the ethics of genetically engineered crops and animals in terms of duty to society might ask, "How do we create enough food without creating antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria in livestock and plants?" This question might involve bioethics, business ethics, and environmental ethics, each with a different stance in this debate.
  
  

Metaethics

• The third major branch of ethics is metaethics, which asks metaphysical questions about ethics. While applied and normative ethics directly question situations and society, the study of metaethics might be said to question the questions themselves. Some major metaethical questions might be "How do we define goodness?" or "Is this ethical value universal, or does it depend on culture?" In metaethics, the goal is to discuss the meanings behind terms, statements, and questions.