Thanks for the idea. In a way, I think they are simillar. Normative ethics is traditionally defined as "the way things ought to be" and descriptive ethics is "the way people think things are". But, the way things ought to be are only the way things are on another level.
If you mean that I am confusing what people think with what is the case, I am having difficulting understanding what from my comments led you to think that.
I don't think of them as being in the same bucket. Descriptive ethics to me is something like "we noticed that people claimed to value one thing and did something else, so we did an experiment to test it." And prescriptive ethics is decision theories.
What gave me the idea is this sentence: "as opposed to taking account of real effects of moral ideas in the actual world. "
which sounds like thinking about descriptive ethics while the post title refers to prescriptive ethics.
Hi everyone,
If this has been covered before, I apologize for the clutter and ask to be redirected to the appropriate article or post.
I am increasingly confused about normative theories. I've read both Eliezer's and Luke's meta ethics sequences as well as some of nyan's posts, but I felt even more confused afterwards. Further, I happen to be a philosophy student right now, and I'm worried that the ideas presented in my ethics classes are misguided and "conceptually corrupt" that is, the focus seems to be on defining terms over and over again, as opposed to taking account of real effects of moral ideas in the actual world.
I am looking for two things: first, a guide as to which reductionist moral theories approximate what LW rationalists tend to think are correct. Second, how can I go about my ethics courses without going insane?
Sorry if this seems overly aggressive, I am perhaps wrongfully frustrated right now.
Jeremy