Descriptive Ethics

Descriptive ethics can broadly be thought of as the study of morality and moral issues from a scientific point of [Page 569]view. It can be thought of as the branch of ethics that attempts to develop conceptual models and test those models empirically in order to enhance our understanding of ethical or moral behavior, moral decision making, and more broadly moral phenomena. This area or branch of ethics might also be referred to as behavioral ethics. Descriptive or behavioral ethics, then, describes and explains moral behavior and phenomena from a social science perspective or framework.

One might distinguish morality from ethics. Morality can be thought of as the set of norms, rules, standards, principles, or values that guide adherents in their behavior as to what is ...