Talk:Descriptive ethics

Descriptive ethics vs. meta-ethics
what is the difference between descriptive ethics and meta-ethics? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chentianran (talk • contribs) 12:28, 16 December 2003
 * This is now explained Anarchia 01:07, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Kholberg
Why is Kholberg on this page? Shoulden't this be an article about general descriptive ethics and value theory? Vistago 15:07, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Kohlberg can serve as a useful example of someone working in the field. Anarchia 01:07, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Connections to Social Sciences Besides Psychology
If the approach is empirical, then why wouldn't there be links to empirical work (if any) in appropriate articles in anthropology, evolutionary psychology, comparative religion and similar fields? DCDuring 22:04, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
 * It isn't always just empirical. Some philosophers who reject the is/ought distinction are described as doing descriptive ethics. This is not covered in the existing article. However: Yes to athropology, not so sure about evolutionary psychology (definitely involved in moral psyc, but not so much in descriptive ethics in my experience - perhaps because it tends to be theoretical?), I can see how comparative religion would be linked, but haven;t seen it done, which means nada given my background! This page desperately needs more work. However, it would be great if any new information added to it was clearly referenced, neutral and not original research - which takes time!Anarchia 22:42, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Descriptive ethics and moral relativism
This section appears to be arguing against moral relativism, and it doesn't belong here. The prescriptive conclusion from a set of descriptive premises is not that common of a mistake. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Feenzee (talk • contribs) 01:05, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I noticed that myself. I was reading the article recently, and it flows fairly well and then the section concerning moral relativism hits me. What does this specifically have to do with moral relativism. We already have an article for that. It also disrupts the flow of the article. I feel that it does not warrant its own section, if even it should be included in the article.
 * Patricius Augustus (talk) 18:05, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

The paragraph is essentially about the descriptive ethics of descriptive ethics, and I think that is valid to include. I tried rewriting it to something more apprehensible: Narssarssuaq (talk) 11:35, 25 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Should this section mention the Is–ought problem? It seems that the view that descriptive ethics is in competition with normative ethics is doing what David Hume argued against doing. However, without a source to cite, I wouldn't want to be guilty of WP:SYNTHESIS. I just think it is odd that someone would view the fields as competing - in medical science for example, nobody would accuse a researcher who studies cancer of somehow being in favor of cancer. In the sciences and engineering, if you want to change the way things are (prescription), you always start by understanding the way things are (description). --Teratornis (talk) 06:34, 24 March 2014 (UTC)