The branches of philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The branches of philosophy - Essay Example The branches of philosophy This paper explores these ethical perspectives, reviews relevant perspectives on ethics as an academic discipline, reflects the relevance of ethics among individuals and society, and identifies the key ethical perspectives, values and principles that would most benefit individuals and society. The course content convinced me of the relationship between philosophy and ethics as well as their components. While philosophy deals with the analysis of fundamental ideas and logical examination of the basic concepts of life ethics deals with justification of morality in determining what is right and wrong. In fact, ethics is only one of the branches of philosophy while the other three branches are metaphysics (deals with the ultimate reality and structure of existence), epistemology (branch of philosophy that examines the nature, types, and limits of knowledge) and aesthetics (branch of philosophy that explores the nature of beauty). The course also showed me how metaphysics, epistemology, a nd aesthetics contribute towards the making of one’s ethical perspectives. The course has also thrown light on the major ethical perspectives such as deontological teleological, aretological. It is worthwhile to analyze and apply these ethical perspectives and their sub categories into ethical questions related to homosexuality, capital punishment, environmental ethics, euthanasia, and abortion. For instance, it is worthwhile to evaluate the ethics regarding the issue of homosexuality from utilitarian as well as egoist ethical perspectives. ... For instance, it is worthwhile to evaluate the ethics regarding the issue of homosexuality from utilitarian as well as egoist ethical perspectives. There are for and against utilitarian ethical arguments with regard to homosexuality. Utilitarian ethical theories ask what brings the greatest benefit or least harm for the greatest number, they look at how the effects of homosexuality either increase benefits or minimize harms for the greatest number of those affected. As such, utilitarians who argue for homosexuality regard it as an orientation rather than a choice. They also hold that once the society accepts homosexuals the homophobia of the society will diminish. On the other hand, utilitarians who are against homosexuality argue that it contributes to problems such as addiction and suicide and that greater societal acceptance of homosexuality will not bring about greater happiness to the homosexuals. Similarly, one can find considerable differences in the deontological perspectives towards ethical issues surrounding capital punishments while comparing the deontological perspectives with that of teleological, utilitarian, retributive, abolitionist and egoist approaches. In the same way, the content of the course has been instrumental in providing me insights into environmental ethics which very often go underreported and unnoticed. I came to understand that the conflict between anthropocentric concerns and bio-centric concerns are quite evident in environmental ethics. Similarly, the issues of euthanasia and abortion discussed in the module also raise many ethical questions based on ethical perspectives. While utilitarian ethics tend to recognize the patient’s autonomy in taking decisions as to what will benefit them most the deontological ethicists