Meta-Ethical Analyses

Abstract

According to Sidgwick, ethical judgments are, primarily, judgments about the right actions, or actions which ought to be done. Therefore, it is essential for students of ethics to understand the meanings of the terms ‘right’ and ‘ought’. At the same time, the notion of ‘good’ also plays an important role in ethics. Moral actions are often called ‘good’ acts. Some actions are judged as right because they attain a certain ultimate end, which is also called a human’s ‘True Good’ (ME p. 3). Moreover, two of the three axioms, which Sidgwick proposes as the fundamental axioms to determine the right actions, tell us to aim at certain kinds of good as the ultimate ends of human actions. Therefore, the basic moral concepts that we need to analyze are those of ‘right’, ‘ought’, and ‘good’.