Ubuntu Ethics

Abstract

Beauchamp and Childress define the term ethics as a “generic term covering several different ways of examining and understanding the moral life.” Childress and Macquarrie describe ethics and ethical questions in three different ways. The first are “questions as to what is right, good, etc, or of how we ought to behave (normative ethics, morals).” The second are “questions as to the answers given by particular societies and people as to what is right or good.” The third are “questions as to the meanings or uses of the words used in answering questions of what is right, good.” Emmet describes morality as “Considerations as to what one thinks it important to do and in what ways; how to conduct one’s relations with other people; and being aware and prepared to be critical of one’s basic approvals as disapprovals.” Dewey asserts that “interest in learning from all the contacts of life is the essential moral interest.”.